An Extract from This Month's Release: Family and the Fey
Family and the Fey
Written on December 12, 2015, for the March 18 entry of 366 Days of Flash Fiction, this piece revisits the idea of the elves-under-the-hills coming to live in a new land.
Lemons filled the tree, like colored baubles on a Christmas pine. Dew drops sparkled in the early morning sun, throwing colored rainbows in the shadowed leaves. As the sun rose, the dew drops disappeared, and the sparkling stopped.
Tani stared at the tree, watching the transformation, thinking that Christmas was very far away. When the sun reached her window, she sighed and pulled the curtains; it was the only way to keep the heat out. It was just a shame it kept the sunlight out, as well. She didn’t close the window; the breeze was still cool.
She walked down the corridor to the kitchen, and put the dishes away. No need to start the day with mum grumpy because she hadn’t done her chores. She looked out the window as she worked, glad the veranda shaded the kitchen. It was only as she put the last dish away that she realized how quiet it was. Where was everybody?
In the distance, she heard a horse neigh, and cattle calling to each other, but she didn’t hear anything human. She looked out the window. Beyond the house yard, the red dust kicked up in swirls of red mist, coating salt bush and acacia, and dusting the tall trunks of the ghost gums.
She looked further, toward the riverbed. Only birds moved in the trees, galahs in a raucous pink and grey flock, a cloud of cockatoos screeching as they came to drink in the billabong that formed in the wide river loop. She finished tidying the kitchen and started breakfast.
When the bacon was sizzling and there was still no sound, she decided to see where everyone was. There was no-one in her brothers’ rooms. Strange, she hadn’t heard them leave.
Next, she checked her parents’ room, but it, too, was empty. Tani felt a coldness forming in the centre of her chest. She hurried back to the kitchen, checked the bacon, took it off the heat and covered the pan. There was too much there for her to eat on her own.
Her chest felt tight. She couldn’t be alone. They wouldn’t have left her. She pushed through the back door, and stepped out onto the porch.
“I told you I’d take them.”
Tani gave a small squeal of fright, and turned towards the voice.
He stood at the other end of the veranda, the one closest the lemon tree, the one closest her bedroom window—and he was as beautiful as ever, sharp-featured and long-haired. Tani felt the cold fear in her chest turn to rage.
“Give. Them. Back,” she said.
He gazed out over the spinifex and sandalwood, past the salt bush and acacia, past the billabong with its gum trees and parrot clouds. Tani didn’t need to follow his gaze to know where he looked.
“My family will miss me,” she said, and the look he turned on her was full of pity.
“They will trade you for the future of the farm.”
Tani blushed. What the elf said was true. Her mother had started saying she should marry—and been fairly adamant as to who.
“I have no plans to wed.”
“So, come with me,” he said, and the expression on his face was wistful, pleading.
Tani wasn’t fooled. He was a prince, and would not wed a human.
“You will not love me forever,” she said.
“No, but I will love you to the end of your days.”
“To the end of my youth,” Tani retorted.
“Under the hills, you will not age.”
Truth be known, Tani had often regretted turning him down, but she had been worried about her family.
“And my family?” she asked.
“You can visit once a year. Reassure them you are well, and see that we have kept our promise.”
“Your promise?”
“We promised them prosperity and joy, all the days you resided with us, and we promised them your well-being.”
Tani felt her heart give a little leap, and quelled it.
“And what do you gain?”
“The hills,” the elf said. “The sanctity of the hills. Security for our own.”
“And do you love me?” Tani asked.
“As much as the fey have ever loved,” the elf prince said, and Tani extended her hands.
“Until the end of my days?” she asked as his fingers closed around hers, then watched the air shimmer, parting to let her family return. “Do I get to say goodbye?”
Cover art is by Jake at JCaleb Design, and links to 366 Days of Flash Fiction can be found on Books2 Read at: https://books2read.com/u/b6MrN0
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