~A Wild Heart~
Chapter Fourteen
~~~ooooo~~~
"We're running out of water," she said to Cloud one day, sitting on a boulder in the stream beside him.
"There is water if you look up."
Aeris lifted her eyes from the fern she was twirling back and forth between her fingers to search his face, looking for a clue as to what he was thinking or feeling, but his face was inscrutable. "I meant drinking water for our wells."
The fairy's eyes were fixed on something behind her in the forest. She heard a faint rustling in the brush but when she looked back over her shoulder, there was nothing but the woods and the first leaves of fall drifting gently down from the trees, spinning and dancing in the breeze like flickering tongues of red and gold flames.
She swung back around to face him. "The wells are drying up and it's getting harder to dig deep enough to reach the water level anymore," she went on. "You mentioned before that your kind can communicate with nature, control it to an extent. Perhaps…" Impassive blue eyes met hers, and she almost lost her courage. "Perhaps you can help us."
Blond lashes lowered, veiling his eyes as he ran a hand through his hair. "Our "kind" do not interfere with humans, or aid in the destruction of other life," he said at length.
"I know," she said desperately. "But we don't mean to destroy anything."
His eyes came back to hers. "Tell that to the fish and the beaver and all the other animals that live in the river, and the plants and the trees that depend on it for survival."
"What about the flowers? The water lilies? They're here, aren't they? If humans... If we are so terrible, they wouldn't still be around, would they?"
"These hills are the only place in the world where they still grow."
A part of her wanted to be angry. Clearly fairies made exceptions to their own rules and interfered when it suited their purposes to do so, she thought, a bit unfairly perhaps. "When the water's gone, we won't be able to live out here either. If we're forced to leave, that means I'll have to go, too…"
A strange look entered his eyes. Aeris took hope from it.
He turned his face to the stream, gazed down at the colorful leaves floating past them on the current. For Aeris, not even the sight of the woods in its most glorious season could dispel the sense of foreboding that was slowly growing inside of her. Only one person could put her fears to rest.
"We do not interfere with humans," he repeated the mantra.
Aeris' heart sank.
~~~ooooo~~~
'"The fisherman's wife saw a tender look come into the fairy's eyes, turning them a dark liquid amber, as she touched her hand to the flower in her hair. "I must be getting back," the fairy queen said, feeling the gold petals gingerly as though to make sure each and every one was undamaged and safely intact. "I've been away far longer than I expected to be and I am needed at home. You shall—"'
"Good afternoon."
A shadow fell over her book and Aeris glanced up, startled.
"Zack!" A smile of pleasure lit up her face as she closed the book and slipped it inside her bag. "Are you going home?"
He dropped his lunch-pail and the spade from his shoulder and stretched his arms and legs. "Uh-huh."
A grin tugged at her mouth as she took in the handsome face streaked with dirt. "Had a long day?"
"A long day and nothing to show for it," he answered, sinking wearily down onto the ground beside her and looking out at the farm a short distance away. "I'm surprised you stayed pretty close to the farms today. You're usually too far out to see. Why hasn't Old Ben come running out to chase you off with a stick or Carrie's doll?"
Aeris blinked at him. "I beg your pardon?"
"That's what he was threatening some of the boys with the last time we were here. She was the closest thing to him."
Aeris grinned at the thought of the elderly farmer who liked to scare off the children who were always trying to make off with the pies his daughter, Dottie, left on the porch to cool. It was the opinion of everyone in the hills that nobody could bake a pie like Dottie, and apparently, the townspeople agreed as well, as evidenced by the weekly trips the young widow made into town with her cartful of baked goods, and not even a grumpy, stick-waving old man could deter the children from trying to get their hands on one of her mouth-watering pies.
"Well, I just thought the grass was in bad need of a trim out here." She didn't add that she'd spotted Jason, who was a good friend of Zack's, out with the pretty widow's cattle a couple of times and had arrived this morning to see him driving a herd whose number she knew included those that did not belong to him. After Dottie had finished her baking for the afternoon, she'd brought her little girl out with her along with one of her famous peach cobbler pies to share with Aeris before taking Carrie back to her grandfather at the house and left, presumably to bring home her cows. Aeris, for her part, had felt the weight of guilt ease slightly at having neighbors to share some of the burden, but admittedly, Dottie and Jason hadn't looked like they were exactly trying to keep their courtship a secret. "I guess Dottie must be grazing her cattle elsewhere lately."
"So it would appear."
Lucy and Daisy had seen Zack and for once, so forgot themselves that they left their positions and raced over eagerly in an excited flurry of hot dog breaths and pants, and pounced on Zack.
"Whoa!" he laughed as they toppled him in their enthusiasm and tried to outdo each other licking his face. "Whoa! Share, girls! There's enough of me to go around!" He sat up only to be brought down again by another jump from Daisy. "Daisy! Lucy! Let me up!"
Aeris giggled, watching him struggle to get the girls off. "I was beginning to think they'd forgotten the rest of us. I was almost afraid they were going to snarl at you, or worse, start pushing and herding the sheep together again in such a close huddle, they wouldn't be able to move around to eat. Poor Dottie, she probably felt like one of the children her father is constantly chasing off."
A frown crossed Zack's face as he petted and scratched behind the dogs' ears. "What do you mean, pushing and herding the sheep together? Like they're rounding them up? Have they changed their behavior?"
"I-I..." Aeris stammered as the happy dogs trotted off happily to safeguard their sheep. "Well, it has been a few years since you used to come out with us. They've learned to settle down a bit, I suppose. Mind you, they are still very overprotective of the sheep. It's just different from how they were before."
Zack's eyes narrowed, but he simply nodded. "Shouldn't you be heading back too? It'll get dark soon real quick."
"I should," Aeris sighed. She'd wanted to enjoy the sun for as long as she could but she knew he was right. She grabbed her bag and shepherd's crook as Zack stood up and let out a sharp whistle that the dogs immediately responded to. She smiled, watching them gather the sheep who seemed unwilling to go home just yet. "It looks like you've still got it."
He smiled back as he gave her his hand and pulled her to her feet. "I'm glad to see some things haven't changed."
~~~ooooo~~~
"Who is he, Aeris? Why are you hiding him from us?"
Tifa saw Aeris' back stiffen as she shook the water from a turnip and set it inside her basket.
She'd made it a point to seek out and talk to all the boys on the neighboring farms under the pretense of friendly visits and errands, but had come up empty-handed. From their answers, it seemed unlikely any of them were the one meeting up with Aeris on a regular basis.
She moved around the well pump until she could see the other girl's profile. "You're wearing Zack's ribbon but you're still meeting him."
Aeris' face flushed and her mouth tightened, but she merely bent her head lower over the bucket, scrubbing her day's findings more vigorously so that the water sloshed over the top but she paid no mind to it.
Tifa felt justified in her frustration with her. "You would destroy our home, our family, to be with this boy! Aeris, you don't know what this will do to him if he finds out. You have to stop seeing him, whoever he is." She said nothing in reply and that only infuriated Tifa further. "Think about what you're doing, Aeris! You'll break his heart!"
"And what about me?" Aeris suddenly cried as she turned to face her, heedless of the radishes in her hands, and Tifa saw angry tears glistening in her eyes. "What about my heart? Doesn't it matter, too? Doesn't it matter that you'll break my heart if you make me stop seeing him? You don't know what you're asking of me!"
Tifa stared at her, utterly shaken by her good-natured friend's outburst.
"You and I…" she began in a small voice, frightened but determined to have it out. "We both lost our families when we were children. Zack and his parents opened their home to us, welcomed us both, made us part of their family when no other farm would. We would have been left to starve on our own. But I was far from grateful." Her voice was tinged with sudden shame at the memories. "Don't you remember how it was, Aeris? When I blamed everyone else for my mother and father's deaths and tried to shut out everything around me, you wouldn't let yourself do the same. Your parents had died, too, just as mine had. Your world must have fallen apart too. You had to be hurting as much as I was. But you were out there with Zack and his parents, working on the farm, taking the sheep out, even putting aside your grief and laughing with them, and I came to see how selfish I was being. I knew then why Zack admired you so. Why everyone did. And I wanted to be like you. What happened to the girl who always thought about everyone else before herself? What happened to you?"
"She realized that there is more to life than just trying to survive," Aeris said with a slight tremor in her voice before she was able to get it more firmly under her control than Tifa had. "She discovered that she didn't just want to watch life pass her by; she wanted to live it. And there's someone else now, too… I can't hurt him."
"But...you would hurt Zack." She stared at the brunette girl Zack adored as if she'd never seen her before. "You would destroy his happiness. That's what will happen if you insist on seeing this boy. How can you do that to him, Aeris? How can you be so selfish?"
A tear rolled down her friend's cheek. "Don't you see, Tifa? I can't love Zack like that. I already—"
Tifa took a step back, her hands flying up to ward off what she knew was coming next. "Aeris…"
"I love him."
"Aeris, no."
"I do," Aeris said, brushing her sleeves across her eyes. She dropped the radishes into the basket and hauled the remaining plants out of the bucket and shook them out with stiff, jerky movements, before dumping out the water, and went inside the house with her basket and staff.
Zack, Tifa thought in despair. What was she going to do?