Hold Me as I Fall

Chapter 7: Without You

"Mrs. Siobhan, how long will you be with us?" A small voice chirped.

Siobhan looked over at the small girl that stood beside her. "A few more days. Me and my father will stay until Naoise gets back." She smiled at the thought of her best friend returning.

"I wish you could stay longer."

"Yeah? I do too. Come, let's go find some beautiful flowers and I'll show you how to enchant them to give to your parents." Siobhan grabbed the little girl's hand, and they started down a path that led to a wildflower field.

The path led out of the forest and into the field. Wildflowers of all colors, shapes, and sizes lay scattered throughout it, the morning dew sparkling on their petals. "So, which color flower do you want to get your parents?" Siobhan asked.

"I don't know. I can't see all of them. You're taller than me." Pulling her hand out of Siobhan's she crossed her arms angrily and rolled her eyes.

"Oh. Right. Sorry Keeva." Her cheeks flushed red with embarrassment at this obvious statement. "Can you fly yet?"

"No," she sighed. "Can you?"

Siobhan shrugged, "Yes, but not very far though. My magic gets drained pretty fast when I fly."

Keeva cocked her head and placed a finger on her chin, scrunching her petite nose up in thought, "Can Naoise fly far?"

Raising an eyebrow, Siobhan paused for a moment. "Why do you ask?"

"Well," Keeva began. "Fergus' dad said that he should have been home a long time ago and I thought maybe he couldn't fly very far so he's walking slow."

As Siobhan listened to Keeva's thoughts on this, she began to pick some of the smallest wildflowers around them. The sound of the stalks cracking as she snapped them calmed her nerves while she considered how to respond to Keeva's onslaught of questions. "Why don't you sit with me over here and we can make flower crowns and I'll tell you everything you want to know." She walked over to a small stone and sat down on it, crossing her legs as she got comfy enough to begin making the chains.

Keeva walked over and sat on the ground in front of her, then Siobhan handed her some of the wildflowers she had collected. "Naoise can fly very far. He's what we call a magaidh laidir." Siobhan looked up to see Keeva fidgeting with the end of one of the flower stems as she stared wide eyed with excitement back at her. "Naoise can do more than fly though!" she smirked as she continued, enjoying the amazed reactions of the little girl.

"Like what?" Scooting forward, Keeva leaned her elbows onto her knees in anticipation, having forgotten her small pile of flowers beside her.

"He can also grow." Siobhan widened her eyes as she emphasized the word grow.

"GROW? What does that mean?" Keeva's small mouth was gaped wide open.

"Naoise can grow as BIG as the humans. All the strongest magic users can. They can travel into the human world. Some fairies even live there ALL the time!"

"I want to live in the human world too." Beamed Keeva as she looked back down at her flowers and began to construct her crown.

"Why do you want to live there?"

"My pa goes there all the time and ma said that he wants to live there, so I want to go to!"

Puzzled, Siobhan continued as though she wasn't confused by the response. "Oh really? Well maybe one day you can learn how to grow and go to."