A soft breeze caressed the grasses in the thicket and gently wrapped itself around the oak tree as the early morning sky began to brighten with the approaching sun. In a small hollow of the tree, the remains of an old bird's nest, Lia lay atop a moss blanket that covered the floor of the hollow. After last night's events between Steven and Fishfur, Lia had not slept for some time, her mind going over the bear's response to her question after Steven had left to return home. By the time she fell asleep, it was well past midnight and she was exhausted. Even in her dreams, Lia found herself thinking about Steven. He was so unlike most humans, so . . . different, that she looked forward to the time she spent with him.
As the first rays of sunlight began to peek through the leaves and into the hollow, Lia stirred and smiled. The sky was clear and she could sense that it was going to be another beautiful day. Shaking off the last vestiges of sleep, she stretched and flittered out onto a limb. Looking down, Lia gasped in surprise. Below, at the base of the tree, Steven lay curled up against one of the roots, sound asleep, his face trouble-free and relaxed.
Lia stepped off the limb and floated down to the ground beside him, "He looks so happy," she said quietly as she walked over and climbed up his shirt until she stood on his shoulder.
"Steven," she whispered in his ear, "Steven, time to wake up."
With a soft moan and a stretch, Steven woke up, peered up at Lia and smiled, "Hello," he croaked, "if this is the way friends of faeries wake up in the morning, remind me to sign up on the list for it."
Giggling at his humor, Lia stretched her wings, fluttered off his shoulder and down to the ground in front of him, "You are so silly." She paused as he sat up and leaned against the tree, "How long have you been down here asleep?"
With a great yawn and a stretch that shook him from his head to his toes, Steven replied, "I don't know, what time is it?" Then he remembered, "Oh, sorry. I forgot that faeries don't have watches to keep time."
"Of course not," she replied matter-of-factly, "what need to we have to know the time? Sunrise, sundown, midnight, noontime, winter, spring, summer, fall, that is all that a faerie needs to remember. What reason would someone need to know the time?"
Steven glanced down and looked at his watch, which read 8:09 a.m. "Well, for one thing, humans use time to know when to meet each other, when something important needs to be done by, . . ." he stopped, then laughed as he realized, "Of course! Faeries don't have the demands that we humans place on ourselves." With a sigh, he continued, "Sometimes we humans get so wrapped up in things that we never have time to do them all. I'm beginning to realize why."
Lia lay on the ground and propped her head between her hands, "And why is that?" she asked with a smile.
"Because we never realize just how important some things are over others."
Before he could continue, they heard a groan echoing from the trees, causing Lia and Steven to both look up into the nearby woods. As they watched, the large black bear could be seen ambling out of the forest, coming towards the oak tree.
"Maybe you should stay behind the tree until we're sure he's in a good mood?" Lia suggested.
Steven smiled and shook his head, "No, I've got a feeling I know why he's here." With that, Steven looked up and called out to the bear, "Come on, Fishfur! I know why you're here!"
At the sound of Steven's voice, the large black bear moaned and bounded up the side of the hill. Lia hoped that Fishfur's goodwill from last night had carried over, and she fluttered into the air, landing on Steven's shoulder, "Are you sure about this? Sometimes he can be a little rough."
Steven shook his head again, "I'll be fine." He reached down to the brown bag that he'd brought with him and pulled out the jar he'd taken from his parent's cupboard. Within moments, the bear had reached the tree and Steven knew that he was taking a chance that Fishfur was going to be nice, even though he still didn't have a clue why the bear had not attacked him last night. He stood still as the bear slowed to a walk as he approached the tree. Fishfur moaned again and Steven smiled, taking a guess at what the bear wanted.
"I promised you something last night, and that's why you're here, isn't it?"
Fishfur moaned and continued to approach, now less than ten feet away from him. Steven knelt down and opened the jar, letting its smell carry on the wind. As Lia watched, Fishfur's eyes seemed to take on a glint of joy and he shuffled the last few feet between him and Steven to bury his nose in the jar.
"Wait, wait! At least let me pour some out!" Steven laughed at the bear's antics. Quickly, he poured some of the golden brown liquid onto a large rock and stepped back. "Ok, big fella, go for it."
Fishfur sniffed the liquid and then stuck his nose into the puddle of sweet, gooey mess, licking his lips and enjoying himself.
"What did you give him?" Lia asked with amazement.
Steven smiled, "What any bear would want . . ." he turned the jar up to show her, "honey."
Lia cupped her hands over her face and couldn't help but laugh. Steven had been so thoughtful that she suddenly reached over and kissed him on the cheek.
His eyes grew wide and he smiled, "What was that for?"
"Just for being you." Lia smiled, "Come, let's leave him to his treat." With that, Lia indicated that Steven should follow her and they walked off into the woods as Fishfur stayed behind, relishing his treat.
They walked for awhile, talking about various things, but nothing of importance. Every now and then, Steven would point at some plant or animal and ask Lia a question, or say what it was, almost like a quiz of sorts. Lia would patiently correct him when he was wrong, and would congratulate him when he was right. Surprisingly, he was right far more times than he was wrong, which pleased Lia because it showed that he had been paying attention yesterday during their time together.
Finally, they reached the pool where Steven had surprised her the day before and Steven sat on the shore. Lia had floated down to land on his knee and turned to face him as he relaxed.
For a few minutes, neither of them said anything. Steven gazed out over the water to a small waterfall that spilled down a rock set into the far bank of the pool, watching the early morning sunlight reflect off the waters. His gaze seemed to lose focus and he smiled softly.
"Are you ok, Steven" Lia asked concerned as she gazed up at him from his knee.
Steven blinked, and seemed to come out of a daze, "What? Oh, I'm sorry. No, I'm fine, really."
With a glance over at the waterfall, Lia asked, "What were you thinking about?"
He turned his head and closed his eyes, "I uh, well I was thinking about my life, and about faeries in general, and how lucky you are."
"What?" Lia's eyes grew wide with surprise, "what do you mean?"
Lia could see that Steven's face was turning red and found herself curious about his comment. Steven took a deep breath and let it out slowly, "From what you've told me, it sounds like your life is very rewarding. You actually have a purpose that isn't dependant upon having to deal with money or bills or where to work, where to live, how to afford things, issues that humans spend their whole lives worrying about from day to day. It's no wonder why we find ourselves burnt out and tired so often." Steven stood up suddenly, causing Lia to jump off his knee and land on the grass beside him. She watched as he paced around the pool, speaking loud enough for her to hear him. "But faeries, you take care of the forest. It's your home, your sustenance, your reason for living. As long as the forest survives, you have a purpose, you have all you need."
He sat down again beside the waterfall, running his hands over the top of the water. He frowned and continued, "We humans scheme and connive. We're always so worried about how to beat out the other guy for the better job, the better car, more money, the beautiful girl . . ." Steven closed his eyes for a moment, and Lia could guess what he was thinking about. A moment later he continued, "In the last two days, you've shown me so much, and for some reason that I can't understand, I find myself wanting to know more about your world. Like I've found a part of myself that never existed before, and I've come to realize that what I am, what I have been, is not what I want to be."
Lia found herself watching Steven intently. He didn't seem to notice, or if he did, he wasn't saying anything about it. Since she'd found him at the base of the oak tree two days before, there was something about him that called to her, a sense that there was something meant to be between them, although she didn't know what it was. His words surprised her with their intensity, with a feeling that he was searching for something, but didn't know what it was yet either.
As she pondered this, Steven looked up, "Lia, what is 'Tir Nan Og'?"
Lia gasped and stared at Steven with wide eyes, "Where did you learn about that?"
Steven, dumbfounded by her response, help up his arms in confusion, "What did I say? Is that a bad word or something?"
For a moment, Lia contemplated whether she should tell him. Steven remained seated by the waterfall, staring at her with a look of concern on his face. Finally, she relaxed and flew over to sit beside him, "I'm sorry Steven, it's just that that phrase has never been spoken by humans before, at least not as long as I can remember."
"But what is it?" Steven asked, "I read somewhere that it meant 'Land of the Young' or something like that."
"Where did you learn this?"
"On the Internet," he responded. Lia looked up at him, confused and not sure what he meant. "Umm, I guess you could say it's a human method of distributing knowledge." He figured that would be the best answer to give her without trying to describe the complexities of the World Wide Web and computers.
She seemed satisfied by his answer and frowned, "Well, the words are correct, but the description is not. I'm surprised you were able to say them correctly."
"I did?" he replied in astonishment, "I just took a guess. It seemed the natural way to say it."
Lia smiled, "Well, as I said, the words are correct. The description, however, should mean 'Land of the Faeries. I suppose the reason it is thought to be interpreted as 'Land of the Young' is because we faeries always appear so youthful."
With a grin of appreciation, Steven responded, "I can't imagine why," and winked, which caused Lia to giggle.
"Anyway, 'Tir Nan Og' is our home, the place where all faeries came from. It's a place where we all came from long ago, before our kind dispersed and went our separate ways."
"So you're saying that other faerie-folk exist as well? Like slyphs, dryads, leprechauns . . ."
"Yes, those folk and more. You have to understand Steven that the world of faerie exists just as much as the world of man. However, we've chosen to not be seen by man, and man has chosen not to see us either."
"But . . ." Steven seemed at a loss for a moment, but quickly recovered, "but, if that's the case, why don't humans see you? Why does it seem like the world is so devoid of such magic? If humans realized that faeries really exist . . ." Steven stopped in mid-sentence, his enthusiasm quickly turning to despair.
Looking up, Lia replied, "You realize why, don't you?"
"Yes," he nodded, his eyes closed and his face filled with disappointment. "If we knew that the faerie world existed, we'd probably want to study it, catalogue it, experiment on you . . ." Steven looked like he was going to be ill, "and probably put you in a cage to display you for others to see."
"Yes," Lia replied as she walked across the stream and up onto Steven's knee, "the humans of today have forgotten the bonds that once held our two peoples together. And so we chose to avoid humankind, and weave our magic so as to not be seen by them."
"But you didn't avoid me," Steven commented, clearly confused, "I mean, when I fell in that pond and woke up on the shore, I could see you."
"I know."
"But how? If your magic keeps humans from seeing faerie-folk, how could I see you?
This time, Lia was the one who looked confused, "I don't know. Normally, I could have stood right in front of you and you would have never seen me. Even when I enlarged myself to pull you out of the water, I should normally have been able to sit where I was and you would have looked right through me."
Neither of them spoke for a minute, the only sounds were the breeze blowing through the trees and the water falling over the side of the rock into the pool below. Then Steven cocked his head and asked, "Could it have something to do with that vision I had yesterday?"
Lia thought for a moment, "I don't know. You are the first human I've ever had contact with, so I don't know if such visions are normal when faeries and humans interact. But there is something that concerns me more."
At this admission, Steven was intrigued, "What?"
"Do you . . ." Lia hesitated, "do you realize that Fishfur understands you?"
Steven's eyes grew wide, "He does?!?" He thought for a moment, "Well, after last night's incident . . ." he stopped, "oh, that's right, I umm, had a run in with Fishfur last night and . . ."
With a smile, Lia held up her hand, "I know. I was there."
"You were?!?" Steven asked astonished.
Nodding, Lia continued, "Yes, but when I arrived, I could see that for some reason, Fishfur did not want to attack you, so I didn't interfere."
Steven shrugged, "Well, I figured that maybe my tone or something was conveying that I didn't mean him any harm, but how is it possible that he understands me? You mean he actually understands what I was saying?"
Nodding again, Lia said, "I don't know how, but there's a reason why he understands you." Steven could see that she was hesitating to say the reason.
"Why?" he asked.
Minutes slipped by as Steven watched Lia gather enough courage to tell him what the reason was. Finally she said, "Because . . ." she ducked her head, "because somehow you know how to speak faerie."