Faerie Valentine (2,000 words)
So came a time when magic was no more than the dream of a memory. So it is today. Yet then as now, when the world begins to thaw from winter to spring and Nature works her own enchantments in green buds and dew, a fairy influence still shows itself in subtle ways. Spring is the perfect season for coaxing or aggravating tempers, and Valentine’s Day is the best tease of all.
The youngest fairy of a family, Aoife, was gifted with enchantment. She often sang flowers into early bloom so she might pluck them after a frost, for the petals tasted sweet as ice-cream. Unlike her kin, she couldn’t care less for the human world, which was to her eyes dull and full of sorrow. Perhaps for this reason she caused the most perilous mischief of all.
