~A Wild Heart~
Chapter Six
~~~ooooo~~~
Sitting on the hill beside the fairy, Aeris sneaked a glance at him out of the corner of her eye.
His kind lived in harmony with nature and everything about him spoke of that close, intimate relationship. From him she learned that it had been that way for them since the dawn of time, and despite what the stories said about fairies being unable to feel anything but mischief on their own, she was beginning to suspect differently. They were passionate creatures who cared for all living things and were fiercely protective and proud of the unique role they played in the life of the planet.
She also found out that fairies were by no means immortal, but their lifespan saw the passing of centuries and sometimes millenia. She learned many other things about them and about him. She learned that he was, in fact, by fairy standards, a very young fairy. He was even a year younger than her in human years. But he had a quiet seriousness and a kind of subtle assertiveness that was so easy to overlook, she could very well see how humans could mistake a personality like his for a lack of emotion. As it was, she had been chagrined to discover only recently how she herself had been cleverly tricked into thinking that she was the one guiding their conversations and making the decisions whenever they were together when he was, in reality, the one in charge of every situation. To Aeris, those same understated qualities that no casual observer would discern made him seem older than human boys the same age and indeed, she wasn't surprised when he admitted that he was considered unusually mature for his age by fairies.
Sometimes when she was with him, she feared it was all just a dream. Surely he couldn't be real. What they had couldn't be real. It was magical. That was the only word she could find to describe it. And it was still nowhere near the caliber of what she felt.
Facing him fully now, Aeris lifted a hand.
His eyes fell upon the fingers she hadn't realized were curled, as though to grab him, to clutch him, to make sure he wasn't just a product of her wishful thinking.
He seemed to sense her unsettling thoughts; without a word, he took her hand and drew her into his lap. Her body instantly relaxed, and she let out a soft sigh and turned her face into his neck as she felt the warmth of his body against hers and breathed deeply of the fresh, clean scent she'd never known in any other living creature. He smelled of green leaves and springtime and cool breezes… She could never decide all the things he made her feel and think of but it felt like they had always been a part of her. "You're real…"
"I'm as real as you are."
Looking up, she met the heavenly blue eyes and felt her heart miss a beat as she saw that he understood what she wanted, what she was asking for.
He bent his head and kissed her.
It was so much more than just magical.
~~~ooooo~~~
The sun was just coming up over the hills when Tifa finished her last cup of milk and headed back out to the barn. After filling a large earthenware bowl with chicken feed, she retied the burlap sack and went out into the yard again to release the chickens.
"Here you go," she said, grabbing handfuls of the mix and scattering it onto the ground. "You know I didn't forget you."
There was a short moment of peace and quiet in the cool morning air as the squabbling chickens pecked busily at the ground. She quickly took advantage of the silence to confide to the farm animals what she couldn't share with her companions. "I'm beginning to think Zack is right about Aeris. Something isn't right with her." Tifa's eyebrows drew together. "Some days she comes home happy as a bee. Other days, she looks like her whole flock was taken by coyotes. And Zack…" she sighed.
Zack was a whole other matter.
She swept back inside the barn to see to the other animals.
"There's something he's not telling us." Hands on her hips, she chewed her bottom lip. A chestnut-colored mule poked its head out from one of the stalls and looked in the direction of the haystack by the corner. Tifa trudged forward to get it for him. "He's looking more tired every day. But things are looking up; it's not that bad. He's just becoming a worrywart, is all. Besides we still have the pump." Not long after the girls had moved in with Zack's family, the townspeople had decided to hire some folks from one of the cities to come out with a drill and requested the aid of the local farms in pooling their resources together to help offset the cost. Zack's parents had had the foresight to invest in a well pump but there was no question that if Tifa and Aeris hadn't agreed to put up their families' savings, their farm would not have been able to afford a well. Only five other families had been able to pay for a pump on their farms but so far, none of them had had a problem with their well failing yet.
"If worst comes to worst, we can always move house," she told the cow and her calf as she emptied another bucket into the water trough then did the same for the mules. But Tifa knew that wasn't likely. All the farms that had been deserted because of the fever were now occupied by new families, and just last week, an old friend of theirs had made it known to everyone of his intention to take up residence in the Thompsons' place by the end of summer with his new bride. The handful of farms built by settlers in the old days that were still around were little more than ramshackle buildings that let in all the elements and appeared to be forever teetering on the edge of collapse, which had everybody taking bets as to which house would be the first to be done in by a good gale of wind. They would probably be better off tearing down one of them and building a new house from the ground up.
"At least there's water in some of those wells." Not that she should count on that either, she thought grumpily, taking down a basket to go collect the eggs.
~~~ooooo~~~
"Hey, isn't that your sheep?" Hans asked. The two men were heading toward the bridge that would take them back onto their side of the hills.
Zack followed his gaze and Hans noted with interest the smile that lit up the young farmer's face upon seeing the white blouse and pink dress coming up the trail on the other side of the stream with her flock.
"What are you thinking about with that look on your face?"
"What look?" Zack asked innocently.
Hans wasn't fooled. His friend was standing straighter and he'd seen how the smile had transformed his tired face. "For a man who's been toiling all day under the sun, you don't look none too unhappy." He crooked a brow at him. "Wait, let me guess, you got your eye on a new skirt."
"No new skirt," Zack said, pausing for a moment on the bridge to look over the rail at the water below them.
"Just better not be Matilda or someone will find himself in the pigpen with the slop," Hans threatened.
"Your family butchered the last of the pigs months ago," Zack grinned. "Can't a man be happy about the new well he's finally helping to get done after a series of false starts?"
"No. That was a smile about a girl, not a well." Hans tried not to let his concern show as he too peered down at the stream. Whoever the girl was, he already felt sorry for her. She was going to need all the luck she could get keeping all the other girls away from Zack. "And with the Whitleys waiting for their well, I don't see what to be so happy about."
He could feel the other man's eyes on him. "Don't worry," Zack said lightly. Hans watched in amusement as he ran a hand through his hair and shook the dirt from his shirt. "Your Matilda is quite safe from me, if that's what you're thinking." He waved at the brown-haired shepherd girl who had stopped by the stream, and she waved back. "You go on ahead, Hans. I'll walk home with Aeris."
"Now that's a surprise to hear," he said wryly.
"You know I made a promise to my parents to look after the girls."
"I don't think this was quite what they meant."
Zack's eyes narrowed. "They're my responsibility. We're a family."
"All right, all right," he relented. "But you sure seem awful excited about walking home someone you live with and see every day." Hans looked at his friend with shrewd eyes. Well, both the girls Zack lived with were very comely to be sure and every boy in the hills had at one time or another entertained the thought of pursuing them. If it wasn't for Matilda, he would have tried his hand at courting one of them himself. "Don't tell me the fish has finally found a hook he likes?"
Zack didn't answer and that told Hans far more than he knew.
He let out a small whistle. Maybe he'd been too quick in thinking he was going to feel sorry for the new girl. Hans was of the opinion that men who were surrounded by too many pretty girls and never lacked for female attention may have a hard time choosing just one to be with, but when they finally fell, they fell hard.
"Those poor girls. Poor Martha." He tipped his hat at Zack. "Good day, Zack. Tell Tifa to expect Martha tomorrow, will you?"
He walked off whistling as Zack started down the other way.
~~~ooooo~~~
Aeris had her back to the stream, a pensive look on her face as she gazed upward at the vast emptiness above their heads. Other than a slight tightening of her hand around her shepherd's staff, she gave no sign of hearing or seeing him as Zack neared her.
"What are you looking at?" he inquired, taking up the basket of asparagus and squash leaves at her feet.
"The sky."
He flicked a quick glance at the early evening sky. "Looks the same as every other day."
"Does it?" A faint smile curved her lips. "I think it looks lovely tonight. It rather reminds me of someone's eyes."
"Why, thank you."
Aeris' laugh was like silver bells on the wind. "You do have very nice eyes," she said, turning to face him. "I've always said so."
"You and everybody else," he said cheerfully.
"Including you."
"Of course," he replied, raising his chin and giving her a haughty look that had her giggling.
"I take it you had a good day?"
He shrugged. "It was all right."
"You're smiling. It was better than 'all right'."
"That's not why I'm happy."
"Oh, so you're happy." Her eyes sparkled a laughing, dark green that was every bit as captivating as his own rare shade of blue that all the girls fell head over heels for. "Do tell."
His eyes narrowed on her face. "I don't think I will," he said, and chuckled at her pout as they set out for home. "Not unless you tell me why you're happy."
"I'm happy because you're happy," she said promptly.
"Uh-huh."
"That's what Fanny and Martha and oh, all the other girls, would say, isn't it?" She placed a hand over her chest, fluttered her eyelashes, and pretended to swoon. "Oh! He smiled at me again! Be still, my heart."
He fought back a grin. "You're not 'all the other girls'."
"Glad you noticed."
"Believe me, I've always noticed. Now stop trying to dodge the question."
She let out an exaggerated sigh. "Why else? I had a good day, too."
Zack gave her an extremely harassed look. "Right."
"Just look at the dogs—it's clear we had a great day. And look, I found strawberries!" She pointed to the leaves in the basket.
"Keep your secrets then." His own sigh was ruined by the chuckle that escaped him at the sight of Lucy and Daisy trying to hurry the sheep along and nearly tripping them in their eagerness. "But I change my mind about the girls. Whatever you've been doing with them, don't stop. I really haven't ever seen them like this before."
"I won't." She smiled fondly at Daisy who was walking nearest to her.
"They're going fast today," he remarked. "Think they're trying to tell us something?"
"That they're hungry?" she asked. "They're always hungry."
"They're not the only ones. I wonder what Tifa's got cooking for dinner."
"She said she was going to have a special treat for us tonight. Maybe something for dessert."
"Maybe it's omelets."
"Omelets?" Aeris wrinkled her nose daintily. "For dinner? Why would you think that?"
His lips twitched. "I guess because Hans was just telling me that Martha will be coming around tomorrow and it made me suddenly crave omelets. You should really hear him when he's going on and on about how our eggs are the best and why is it that they taste better than everyone else's and can he please come live with us?"
She chuckled. "Well, Tifa's been taught by the best. She knows what she's doing with the chickens."
"We do get a lot of eggs for the size of our flock. My mother used to send me over to their farm all the time for eggs when we were little."
"I think we all did. I was always bumping into one of the other children when I went to their place."
Zack gave a nod. "You have a way with the sheep and Tifa is good with the chickens and keeping house. With you girls around, I've got it made. Every man should have two girls running the farm for him."
A dark slender eyebrow rose. "If that's so, every woman should also have two men around to help her with the housework. Maybe we should have Hans move in with us. We could use an extra pair of hands around the house."
He frowned. His freckled, red-headed friend was as hardworking and reliable a farmer as any man, or woman, could want in a companion. Perhaps a little too reliable, Zack thought, recalling how Hans hardly ever missed a day of work out on the farms with the men. "It's not the same thing," he said. "One strong, able-bodied man is all you need to do a man's work on a farm."
Aeris looked like she was trying not to laugh. "It's true men don't have as much to do and therefore aren't as useful as women, but that makes having two men more sensible than having one to help with the chores. You know, women's work."
"Not as useful?" Zack asked in mock outrage. He looked challengingly at her. "We'll see if you don't change your tune the next time you need a man to carry in the bathwater for you."
"I'll ask Hans to do it." She laughed at his scowl. "I'm sure he wouldn't mind."
Note: I just want to mention some wonderful readers who took the time to comment on this story. Scatterheart Angel, Captain Arbitrary, Animefan111, kairitheseventh princessofheart, BehindTheseCivilizedEyes, AcidCherry, and Gabriela Romero: My thanks to each and every one of you. Your kind words have been an endless source of encouragement and pleasure for me to read.