Magic Gold (154 Words)
She sat braiding her hair. In the morning light the strands shone rusty brown. The young woman’s agile fingers weaved in and around each other, but her mind was elsewhere. She remembered gathering chestnuts last fall, and the man who had offered to buy her basket.
“But, my lord! This is gold.”
“I am no one’s lord,” said the man. “And the real gold is what you carry.”
She recognized then, the strangeness in his eyes and figure. He was not human but elven, one of the woodland fey. She took his coin and gave him the basket.
When she returned home, she told no one what had happened. She had known that when she searched her pockets the coin would not be there. That was the way of fairy gold.
But she held a strange hope, as she had for every day since the last, that she would see the elven man again.
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This flash fic was written in response to today’s 120 Days of Crayola prompt, “Chestnut,” and the Daily Post’s Daily Prompt, “Agile.”
WALLIE'S WENTLETRAP 