The fairy took down one of the pictures above the fireplace. The man looked young and full of hopes and dreams in that photo. She caressed his face with the tips of her fingers.
"His name was James..." she said, and her lips trembled when she said the name.
"He brought me here, in this very house. His home. I can't remember how many days I've laid in his bed, agonizing between two worlds. When I woke up, my ankle was almost healed because he had been fomenting it with healing herbs.
"James grew vegetables for a living. He earned just enough to have a modest life. He was a simple, happy man. He had the most contagious, overwhelming laughter, and he loved life. His heart was kind and generous. He couldn't hurt a fly. The people from the village were cherishing his hard work. And they knew that vegetables and fruits in his garden tasted better just because they were looked after with love. Sometimes, he didn't even have to go to the village. People often came by and bought straight from his garden.
"But I wasn't like anyone he has ever seen. And I caused him a lot of trouble. At first, I was scared and stubborn, wild even. I refused to eat, drink, or talk. I felt captive in that new world, the one I was so much curious about before. I couldn't fly, nor use any of my powers because I felt so weak. The power of the iron was too strong. But his persistence, his endless patience, and care eventually healed me. He knew I was different from the ones his kind. He must have known it from the very beginning. But it didn't bother him at all.
"He learned how to take care of me. He got used to it. In the beginning, I did nothing but watching him working in his garden from dusk 'till dawn. And in time, I began helping him with his chores. I felt good when I was seeing his plants growing and yielding fruit under my touch. There was so much to do in his small garden─ watering the plants, weeding out, digging and loosening the soil. Then, the vegetables and fruits had to be prepared for the cold season. Then, there was the conserving and canning. His basement was full of jars, pots, and bottles of all shapes and sizes, filled with the most inviting jams, marmalade, syrups, pickles, and most noble wines. And the vegetables were resting in wooden boxes filled with moist soil while the walls were covered with thick ropes of which peppers, garlic, and onion were hanging.
" James loved his simple life, and he made me love it, too. And eventually, he fell in love with me. I thought I was the luckiest being in this world and a hundred others when that happened. It wasn't that impossible love between two different beings. It was just love. It was the purest, the most honest love. So strong, that it made me stay forever. It made me want to become a human.
"All that mattered to us was to be together. We were happy. I was helping him take care of his garden, and under my power, the plants were growing like never before in those lands. People from the village were visiting ever more often to enjoy the unearthly flavors and tastes of his vegetables, fruits, and herbs. The worries seemed as drifting away like a dandelion puff, carried away by the wind. And every night, James and I were laughing and dancing under the moonlight, thinking how lucky we were to have found each other.
"The happiest day was the day of our first kiss. When this world and the ones beyond were ours... And for a moment, everything seemed perfect.
"But then, they've tried to set us apart. People and fairies alike. Sometimes I felt the whole universe was against us. And I couldn't understand how something so pure, so profound, could be wrong.
"The village people could not possibly understand how a young, strong man like him could love a stranger coming from nowhere. James has told them he found me wandering in the woods and that I was suffering from amnesia. That's how I managed to get away from their questions and curiosity. But not from their resistance. They could never accept I was different. A freak, they said. But James couldn't care less. He was not listening to their words full of venom and he kept on loving me with my whole fairy nature.
"But the fairies were a thousand times more bitter. They had found me, and the fairies from the Shepherd's Forest were not out of it. I've learned to avoid that forest ever since; while the fairies of my kind tried everything to make me come back. They promised me more freedom because they knew that was what I've always wanted. They promised I could visit the world of humans three times in a year. But I said no. How could I have possibly seen James only three times in a year, when a single moment apart was breaking my heart? I gave up any fairy power, only to be allowed to live among humans. The only things I kept from fairyland were some feathers from my magical bird, which eventually had stopped visiting me, too.
"But the fairies would not give up that easily. They tempted James with endless riches, with eternal youth and life, only to give up on me. But he was sturdy in front of everybody. Except for the time...
"You see, time is ruthless to people. It helps them grow up, gain strength as they grow. It gives them the illusion of power and that the entire world is theirs. But slowly, without them knowing, it weakens their body and blurs their mind. And from mighty oak trees, the people become poor stumps, crooked and weak. In the land of Fae, time flows differently. Much slower, giving the illusion fairies are immortal. I know fairies who have lived for thousands of years. We grow old so slow, we let humans believe we are forever young. When a day passes in people's world, only one moment has passed into our own.
"And time wrapped James with its elusive arms. He was getting old. His strength was weaker. His heart was just as bustling, but his body would not listen to him anymore. And the thought of aging and perishing would not let him be.
"I, however, was just as young as the very day we met. The village people started to talk at the corners. Spitting their venom at me ─ that I was a witch, and I kept James under my spell. I wished I could grow old, too. I would dye my hair with special weeds to make it gray. I would hide my face underneath hideous masks so they could look like wrinkled faces. Eventually, I stopped showing my face at all, I stopped visiting the village without a veil covering my face.
"But soon, we were to know a greater happiness. We had not one, but two children. A boy and a girl. We've called them Kane and Hannah. Which meant endurance and radiance. They were the most beautiful, naughtiest children. They've inherited my silver hair and the green emerald eyes of their father. Their skin was paler than mine, and because of that, the other children used to tease them. And that is how I found out about their powers. Anyone who would mistreat them or tease them were punished, one way or another. They were stumbling out of the blue. They were pushed by unseen forces. They were pinched by their cheeks and pulled by their hair. Their hats were carried away by eddies of wind. The witch's children, so they were calling my children, in their ignorance and fear.
"That was when I've decided not to visit the village. And for a while, we were happy. The children were growing up like normal children since they were living in the world of humans. But their powers were growing with them. I taught them to hide their powers in front of humans. I lied to them. I told them they were normal children with a wide imagination. I was only trying to protect them.
"We were working in the garden while our children were playing in the hills. Practicing their powers without me knowing. The only one who would go to the village was James. We were living a peaceful and quiet life. I made peace with myself that I would never use my fairy powers again. Except for dancing and singing, which made the plants grow.
"But that would do no good to James. Not even our children couldn't make him happy. He almost wasn't looking at me anymore. Because every time he looked, my face would always remind me I was forever young. And that he couldn't stop aging.
"And then, I suggested him the craziest thing— I asked him to go to the Land of Eternal Youth where you could never get old and live forever. Where we could have lived forever, away from sickness and old age. But he said no. He was so stubborn... Don't you ever fall in love with a mortal," she said, looking at Ferry with a wild look. "Loving a mortal will bring you nothing but bitterness and torture your heart forever. People are incapable of loving the way we do. We love only once..."
And the fairy stopped talking, shaken by a strong shiver. She barely found the words to continue, "But James was firm until... Until the day he died. He went to the village, just like the usual, with his cart full of fruits and vegetables. It was a late autumn's day, cold and dark, which was foreseeing nothing good. A few days before, I've noticed a strange presence stopping in front of our house; a creature only I and the children could see. I haven't said a word to James so I wouldn't worry him. But that presence, an old hag dressed in black, would show up with her carriage led by a headless coachman, and mourned in front of the house, then melting into the mist. For three days in a row, I've heard her terrible wailing, but I tried not to pay attention, thinking it was just another fairy, sent by my fairy family to trouble our lives. And somehow, I was relieved James couldn't hear or see her. If I only knew..."
And Lavender sighed, putting back the picture. She sat at the table, her eyes still lost in memories.
"That day... I waited and waited, but in vain. It was evening already, and he still didn't arrive. It never happened before. With a heavy heart, I covered my face and went to the village. I haven't done it for a while. And I found him, laid near a tree in the village. Looking sick and older than the usual. The people in the village were just about to come and let me know. They've told me they saw him in the market, as usual. Then, he retreated near a lonely tree, saying he needed a rest. They found him later, barely breathing.
"I went to him. He looked at me, smiling. He knew his time was near. He searched for my face with his hand, beneath the veil, and caressed my cheek. Then. he held my hand. Tightly. He wanted to say something. I bent over him and heard his fainted whisper: 'Beware of the shadow people...' Then he let go of my hand. It was getting cold...
"I wept that day like I never had before, with fairy tears. I wept for his miserable fate because he had to love a fairy; for the love that brought him to an end. The village people felt sorry for me and let me bury him on the top of the hill, near his beloved garden. Close to the house and close to my heart.
"My life was meaningless ever since. My children became strangers to me and they always reminded me I was hiding something from them. They spent all the days away from their home, wandering the hills and the forest. They had grown up. They were already young seeds waiting to spring and blossom. They wouldn't understand why I kept them away from humans. They knew that they were different. But humans have always been an attraction, just like they have been for me once.
"I was spending days without an end in the garden, trying to not let it become a prey of bad weeds and wild herbs.
"And one day, I had an unexpected visitor. Someone long-forgotten from the land that was once my home. He showed up suddenly, right in front of my eyes. He was troubled. He was asking me to come back with my children for dark times had come upon my lands. He needed us to fight against the evil which was threatening my people. But I said no. I thought that was just another trick to make me come back. And I forbid him to visit me ever again. When my children saw him, they had the living proof he was not a human. That I was a fairy. Therefore, they were half-fay. Then the strange visitor left, leaving someone to protect us. Because, he said, we were in danger, too.
"But it wasn't long before my children were gone, to my grief and desperation. I wandered the hills, searched the forest... I even managed to fly, after a long, long time. But my powers were weak after so much time spent among the humans. I wandered around, day and night. I became a shadow, always searching for something. The village people thought I had lost my mind.
"But my children had vanished without a trace. The fairy guardian said they've been captured by evil fairies and locked away. I've been looking for them, for years and years. I'm still looking for them, hoping they are still alive.
" I've been living alone ever since, away from people and fairies alike. All I want is to see my children one more time..."
And the fairy buried her face in her palms and wept. Her sobs broke Ferry's heart. He didn't know whether he should believe her strange, sad story, yet he still felt sorry for her.
"How can I help you?" he asked.
The fairy looked at him, tears still falling from her eyes. "Do you really want to help me? You see, once you do, there is no way back."
Ferry felt fear again coming upon him.
"What does that mean?" he asked.
"It means that the time is near. The time to accept who you really are..."
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