Volume 8 - CH 2

P. 38

[Inquiries regarding fairies are always welcome. Fairy Doctor, Lydia Carlton.]

The client was an elderly woman. Wearing a slightly ostentatious saffron-colored dress and a fur cape, this woman appeared alone on Lydia’s doorstep around sunset. 

“My goodness, so you were proposed to by a fairy?” gasped Lydia to the woman smiling like a pure young girl. 

“That’s right. I would love to accept it. But my whole family disagrees with me. I cannot understand how marrying a fairy could be improper at all.” 

“Yes I see, but there have been a few arrangements that were done in the past.” 

It’s been so long to have such an actual job consultation. Lydia was excited and inched forward in anticipation. 

“So, may I ask what sort of suitor he is?”

“He only appeared as a handsome young man to my eyes, and he did seem very different at first. But even after learning that he wasn’t human I wasn’t that surprised.”

Then it looks like he isn’t a brownie or hobgoblin that could be living around here. 

“Mrs. Hadley, for a start, could you introduce me to your suitor? I could be a liaison for you two and try to convince your family.”

P. 39

“Really? That would be wonderful! Such a relief. I’m so glad I came to visit you.” The woman took Lydia’s hands into hers. Lydia was thrilled with satisfaction. Stories about fairies proposing to humans were usually heard with young girls. But there were still so many different kinds of fairies in the world. If there was a fairy who found this pure old lady so adorable, than she could understand how such a fairy would want to propose to her. 

“Then I’ll go fetch us some tea. So please, make yourself comfortable. We’ll discuss the details while enjoying some refreshments,” offered Lydia slowly standing up. I need to get all the details exactly. This is such a joyous opportunity. It might be finally be my first step to be acknowledged as a fairy doctor!

For the public, fairies only were characters in children’s bedtime stories. If it was not too long ago, then nobody would have doubted their existence. But when it rolled into the 19th century, with all the drastic changes in industry, all the people of England who had been neighbors with fairies, had forgotten such beings, with rapid speed. 

But Lydia knew that they all still exist. Spotting them constantly and hearing their voices wherever she went. Someday, like her late mother, Lydia wanted to become a Fairy Doctor that people depended on and become well respected for her good deeds. At this point, she still was an amateur but she had plenty of motivation. 

“That old woman, she better not be senile,” came the voice from above the shelves. A biscuit floated up into the air. 

P. 40

Just as her eyes followed it, a side of it was bitten into. The one with the voice that appeared, licking his lips for any crumbs, was a long haired gray cat. He sat down on top of the shelf and crossed his hind legs. The cat straightened his favorite tie and combed through his whiskers that he was so proud of, and looked down at Lydia.

“Nico! that’s bad behavior!” shouted Lydia.

“But you know, in your own case, even if you can see fairies, you don’t have an eye for people.”

“If it’s about humans, than as a human of course I’d know !” Lydia puffed out her words as she poured hot water into a pot. 

“But so far, the previous client was a self-proclaimed angel. Before that was a self-proclaiming spiritualist and you believed in all their crazy fantasies and already failed miserably. Even that old lady, with her story of being proposed by a handsome fairy man, sounds like one of her dreams,” said the gray cat as he waved his long tail. 

He was Lydia’s childhood friend and was in fact, a fairy himself. But regardless, he had no pleasant comments to give. Besides, it wasn’t convincing when a cat that didn’t act like a cat was trying to persuade you something. 

“This time, surely it’s a true request. Because there are fairies that can transform into human form, you know.” Just then, the front door bell range repeatedly, almost vehemently. “Oh my, another visitor? Nico, would you prepare the tea?”

“What~! You overwork fairies too much.”

Paying no attention to the complaining cat, Lydia rushed to the front door. 

P. 41

When she swung the door open, a portly gentleman stood at the door, taking off his hat. 

“I believe my aunt has paid you a visit.”

“Umm, do you mean Mrs. Hadley?”

“Pardon me,” he said and entered the house. After spotting the old woman sitting in the drawing room sofa, he grabbed her arm roughly.

“Aunt Ruth, please stop such foolish behavior. Talking about fairies and marrying one, you are the laughing stock of the town.”

“Hold on just a moment! Please don’t judge like that. Catching the eye of a fairy really isn’t that unusual,” claimed Lydia to the sudden intruder. 

The gentleman stared at Lydia with a look of disbelief. 

“I see. I’ve heard that the Carlton daughter is an oddball, but it seems the rumors are true. Someone like you would be able to converse with a senile old woman.”

“I am not senile. Who are you? Would you please left go of me,” said the lady.

“What are you talking about? Aunt Ruth.”

“I know! my father has sent you, hasn’t he? Because he can’t seem to left go of the prospects of marrying me off to that family that runs the bank.”

P. 42

“Good God!” cried out the man and turned towards Lydia. “As you can see, my aunt thinks of herself as a young debutante.”

“Uh, but, that shouldn’t mean her story about a fairy proposing was made up..”

But the man, without consent, started to drag the woman out.  

“Unfortunately, young miss, if you continue to speak of fairies, it’ll make me doubt your sanity.”

“But I am a fairy doctor! A professional about fairies, so please if you would just listen to me..”

*****

The next day, Lydia immediately headed to the river, located at the edge of town. There wasn’t anybody at the riverside where its reflection mirrored only the cloudy gray sky, making it even more dismal. 

Lydia, along with Nico, cautiously approached the water’s edge while careful to spot any sight of unnatural ripples on the water surface. 

“Oi, Lydia, there’s somebody there.” 

P. 46

Holding down her hair that was blown around by the strong winds, she squinted into the distance, to see a figure standing by the riverbed.

“Mrs. Hadley! What are you doing here?”

It was the visitor from yesterday. Lydia dashed over to her. 

Covering her gray hair with a shall, Ruth Hadley lifted her face from her gaze from the water surface. 

“My, Miss Carlton. Please forgive me for leaving yesterday. It seems like my father won’t approve my marriage with a fairy.”

“Um, about that, I…”

“But, I was so thankful for your kindness. You were the only one who believed me.”

“Mrs. Hadley.”

“It’s Ruth. Please call me Ruth. I want us to become friends.”

“Yes, of course.”

*

It was half a century ago. Ruth grew up in the Highlands, the area where water-horses were said to live. The young Ruth met a water-horse who happened to be in his human form and both fell in love. But she already had an engagement her father made, and on top of that the man disappeared from her, fearing the time when she’d come to find out he was ferocious fairy of human eating kind. But even after many years, he still couldn’t forget her, and thinking that now was the only time since a human’s lifespan was so short and followed the river back to this town. 

The younger brother kelpie told Lydia that Ruth had not forgotten about him. She kept the snow crystal that he gave her. He was overjoyed at their reunion and proposed to her immediately but still couldn’t tell her that he was a water-horse.

He was soft spoken and had graceful manners. Unlike his older brother, he was more slender but he too had the perfectly sculptured beauty. These two water-horses were now in the Carlton house. 

P. 50

Of course, they were in human form, but Lydia couldn’t stop thinking how unreal this seemed to herself. But in reality here in front of her were two gorgeous handsome men, one silver-haired man sitting politely with his hands resting on his thighs and one black-haired man leaning back in a chair with his feet on the table in an arrogantly, daunting manner. 

And they’re horses. Horses!, she bitterly muttered, for no reason. 

The younger brother carried the unconscious Ruth to this house and she was currently resting in one of the bed chambers. Lydia was listening silently to the water-horse’s story.

“Fairy Doctor, I will leave this land. I shouldn’t have come here in the first place.”

“Oi, you are alright with that?” shouted the older brother fairy. 

“Brother, weren’t you opposed?”

“As kin, I oppose. In any case, humans die too quick after all. Even if we take them to the fairy world, there still is their lifespan. But I saw how you were suffering all this time. To watch you continue to be heartbroken is unbearable.”

“Well now, so you do have a good side,” said Lydia.

“Of course I do. How low were you thinking of this great kelpie?”

P. 51

P. 60

In that moment, the silver kelpie trotted forward. He transformed gracefully into a beautiful human man as he neared them.

“Ruth, you haven’t changed one bit. All I see is the shape of your soul. If I truly don’t frightened you, then would you please spend your remaining time with me?”

Squeezing the snow crystal in her hand, Ruth replied with a faint nod. Then she turned to Lydia with a smile on her face and softly hugged her. 

“Lydia, thank you… I’m so happy that we became friends….” 

Unraveling her arms and silently backing away, Ruth slowly walked over to him. As she got closer, the light that was surrounding the water-horse spilled over onto her and turned her gray hair into a bright red, and Lydia watched with watery eyes, as an energetic young lady was embraced by the man’s arms.

*

“And you had just made a human friend. Yet you have to send her off to the fairy world,” said the gray cat sitting on a chair, twitching his whiskers as if they were enjoying the fragrance of the tea rising up from the cup he held in his front paw. 

“There’s nothing I can do about it now. It was for Ruth’s sake.”

P. 61

“So you gave up making human friends and decided to increase your fairy friends instead?” asked Nico glancing suspiciously over to the black wavy haired man crunching down on biscuits.

“What is this. Such wimpy food.”

Lydia, shaking her hands that gripped the teapot, knitted her brows on top of a frown. 

“Why are you here in the first place, kelpie!”

“Well my younger brother went off to the new frontier with his bride. As for me, it’s quite boring now…”

“Doesn’t mean that you have to come to my house!”

“I’ve started to be interested in humans as well.”

“Even if you were to observe Lydia, she might not equal to an actual human being’s standard.”

“What? Nico! What does that suppose to mean?!” shouted Lydia. She didn’t realize that soon enough, people would be whispering about the Carlton daughter who was having a loud conversation with only a cat in her house.

The End