Damaged

She was damaged. She had managed to break free of the chains that bound her, but the effort had cost her much. Her left ankle was swollen and bloody, and her left wing was crushed and bruised, making flight impossible.

He was damaged, too, but in a different way. His heart had been broken. He had devoted his life to one woman, only to watch helplessly as his lover grew cold and hard and unforgiving until eventually, he had come home one day to find her gone. Left alone, he took to wandering in the forest. He told himself he was hunting, but in truth he simply felt more comfortable among the trees. The woods became his sole place of solace and comfort.

The fairy struggled to put distance between herself and her erstwhile captor, but every step was excruciating. She tried in vain to force her mangled wing to work, but the pain was too great. She collapsed in a heap, sobbing, unable to go on.

The hunter found her that way. Dirty, tearstained, bedraggled, and not beautiful in any way. He stepped out into the clearing where he liked to sit and think, and saw her lying motionless under a tree. He softly shook her awake and gave her water from the skin at his side. With tender hands, he bound up her wing and gently washed her chain-chafed ankles. Without a word, she watched him from wide, fearful blue eyes as he saw to her wounds, only wincing here and there at the pain.

When she could move freely without shocks of pain shooting through her wing, he brought her fresh fruit and cool water from a nearby stream and sat with her while she ate and regained her strength. All the while, he spoke to her in a calm, soothing voice, but she did not answer, only stared at him through the curtain of her dirty blonde hair and gratefully accepted what he brought her.

As the sun began to set, he moved to leave, but she placed a hand on his arm and restrained him.

“Thank you,” was all she said, and she stood to watch him walk away.

The next afternoon, he found his mind straying from his work and off into the little clearing in the woods. Would she still be near? Unable to contain his curiosity (as he told himself it was), he closed up his shop and strode off into the woods.

As he approached the clearing, he heard singing. Stepping out from the path, he saw her sitting on the ground, flexing and working her wing and singing a mournful tune. When she looked up and saw him, her face filled with light and she jumped up to greet him with an enthusiastic hug.

“My wing,” she smiled shyly as she gestured with it, “It’s nearly healed. I can never thank you enough.”

Somewhat abashed by her joyful welcome, he stepped back, looking puzzled. “How can that be? It was only yesterday….?”

“My kind heal quickly,” she assured him. “But I would not have healed properly if you had not found me and helped me when you did. I am forever in your debt. If ever I can do anything for you...” She beamed at him with open arms.

He turned away quickly. She was beautiful, in an ethereal way, but she was fey, and he did not want her to see the carnal desire that filled his heart and eyes at her offer. “No.” His voice came out more gruffly than he meant. “There’s nothing.” He stomped away back towards the village, leaving her feeling confused and rejected.

When the languorous hours of the next afternoon began to drag on, he once again found his thoughts idling off into the woods. Somewhat disgusted with himself, he threw himself into his work with a will, determined to forget her.

To no avail. The next morning, he awoke with a plan. He would go to the woods, find the fairy, assure himself she was going to be fine, then return no more.

She was not in the clearing when he arrived, but he heard her voice lilting in a jolly tune. Following the sound, he found her bathing in a little pool where the stream gurgled ‘round a bend. Speechless, he watched her for several long moments before clearing his throat to announce his presence. To his surprise, she did not jump to cover herself. Rather, she turned to him with an inviting smile and beckoned him down into the pool.

After, as they lay in the sun beside the stream, he chuckled to himself at the failure of his plan. She saw his smile and returned it, stretching languidly before reaching up to caress his cheek. He dozed off, and when he awoke, she was gone. He gathered himself and strolled back toward the village, wearing a dazed smile.

For many weeks, he went to the woods every morning. Both man and fairy revelled in the sylvan assignations, but as time wore on, both began to crave a greater level of intimacy. As a man alone, he desperately needed a woman in his home to cook and clean and care for him; as a fairy lost from her own kind, she desperately needed the depth of caring and spiritual connection her people usually shared with one another. But she was fairy and he was human, and she could no more live in his world than he could in hers.

One morning, as he prepared to go to the forest, there came a knock at his door. When he opened it, he stopped short, staring at the young woman standing there. A dark hood covered her hair and shadowed her face, but there was something vaguely familiar in her demeanor.

“Please, sir,” she began haltingly. “I - I need work and I am told you are without anyone to keep your house.” He saw her hands tremble slightly as she waited for his answer with downcast eyes.

“Come in, come in!” He stepped back, bemused, to let her enter. Her hood fell back, and as her eyes swept the messy, cluttered cottage, he stared, unable to tear his eyes from her long enough to realize he should be embarrassed by the state of his home. Luxuriant chestnut hair flowed down her shoulders, and her porcelain skin offset eyes as dark as onyx. Finally regaining his composure, he followed her eyes and flushed deeply. “Well. Yes, I suppose I do need someone to help me around here. I cannot pay much, but you are welcome to my roof and my larder. I hope you know better what to do with it than I.”

He spent the morning helping her settle in, and completely forgot he had been about to go visit the fairy. That evening, as he savored the stew his new housekeeper had prepared, he remembered with a guilty start. The next morning, he rose early and slipped off into the forest. When the sun reached its apex, he left the fairy snoring softly beside the stream and returned home.

Over the following months, his trips to the forest became less and less frequent. He told himself it was because he had more work to do, not wanting to acknowledge his attraction to the fairy waned as he became more enchanted by his new housekeeper. The fairy sensed the change in him, and often was absent when he would arrive at their usual meeting place. When she was there, she kept her distance and spoke very little.

As time went on, the fairy’s ethereal beauty faded in his memory, replaced by the earthy, warm image of his housekeeper. Blue eyes receded from his dreams, unable to compete with darker ones.

One year to the day from the day she knocked on his door, he proposed marriage to the dark beauty who had brought such light into his life. She immediately accepted, the banns were announced, and the nuptial ceremony arranged. The night before the wedding, he quietly disappeared into the woods to say goodbye to the fairy. Search as he might, though, he could not find her. In the wee hours of the morning, exhausted and frustrated, he returned to his cottage.

The next day was filled with joy and celebration as the couple celebrated their marriage. That night, he entered the wedding chamber with great excitement, as he had refrained from touching his bride before they were lawfully wed. He kissed her, gently at first, then more urgently as his hands began to pull at her gown. It slid obligingly down her shoulders and he ran his hands slowly up her back, his passion growing until his hands met something unexpected. He jerked back and saw the tears fill her eyes before she turned from him. In the dim light, it took his eyes a moment of adjusting before he realized what he was seeing. The scars were healing, but wings would never again grace her shoulders.