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A little girl sighed dreamily in the front, cupping her small face between her hands.
“There were many woodland creatures too,” the lady continued.
“Cotton-tailed rabbits, chipmunks and squirrels. All kinds of pretty birds—owls, Blue Jays, doves and wrens. But also white and green peacocks regally striding across the mossy ground, and the most majestic white and black swans sailing over a tranquil pond.”
The storyteller took a deep breath and exhaled, staring off into an unknown distance, lost in her own imagination.
“Flowers of every color and shape dotted the grounds and peeked from the bushes and trees. If you picked the deep violet ones with the glassy sheen, you could even eat them for a snack.”
“What do they taste like?” a plump little boy asked, his stomach choosing that moment to rumble.
“Like blueberries dipped in crystal sugar,” she replied. “There were honeysuckles that oozed real honey, and daffodils that held cool mint tea in their cups. You could pick them right off their saucer and drink from them.”
The children ooed and ahhed, thoroughly enchanted.
And frankly, so was Ben.
“Tiny fairies, the size of your littlest finger flitted to and fro with their gossamer wings. If you didn’t look closely, you would mistake them for dragonflies, butterflies and hummingbirds. They greeted Titania like a long-lost friend. And offered her small tastes of their world, pulling her ever deeper into fairyland.”
“Are there pixies, gnomes and water sprites?” a girl piped up from the back.
“And unicorns, selkies and leprechauns?” another asked.
“Why yes,” the lady replied. “All sorts of fae creatures came out to play and meet Titania for themselves.”
“But only the good kind of fae?” the smallest boy asked in a baby voice.
“Indeed. Only the Seelies inhabited these woods. It was their home, after all. Protected by a just, powerful ruler.”
“Who?” an eager boy asked.
“Well, I’m getting to that part,” the lady said patiently, smiling beneficently at the children.
Ben wouldn’t have thought her pretty at first glance, though she couldn’t be termed unattractive. But when she smiled…
She lit up the entire room.
“A waterfall splashed almost silently into the pool. Everything suddenly hushed in this magical world, as if the very air was holding its breath. For, before Titania’s disbelieving eyes, something began to rise out of the water…”
“What?” a boy couldn’t resist asking in a loud whisper.
“What came out of the water?”
The lady looked down at him then, a small secret smile upon her lips.
“A man,” she said softly.
A few gasps from the adult listeners floated uneasily around the room.
The woman blinked and amended quickly, “Fully dressed, of course.”
A collective sigh of relief was released.
“He was resplendent in silver from his platinum hair to the soles of his boots. And so inhumanly beautiful that Titania fell at once.”
“Into the pool?” another little girl queried with a scrunch of her nose.
“In love, my dear,” the lady replied.
