No Longer Alone

Lily Lily, too, might wonder what is about them that the Fae hate. She can understand their want - nay, need - to keep their home to themselves, to keep their neighbors out. That’s what fences are for, aren’t they? But to fear them? That seems more like a measure of control, to keep boundaries firmly drawn, to keep a start line drawn between us and them. It’s easier to fight something that is alien and ‘other,’ and that’s the way it’s always been. Whatever it is the redhead’s said, it seems to relax the girl, which makes Lily quite glad. It’s unusual to see one so young so on edge. And Hazel’s question isn’t so hard, it’s just that it brings her knowledge that the Fae don’t want them there in direct conflict with her want to explore. With the way life is in the barren grounds, the twisted way of the land. The forest seemed like heaven in comparison to the Settlement. “I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the Hollowed Grounds, but they’re hellish on a hot summer’s day. Everything just bakes in the sun. The Greatwood… seemed like a much welcome respite.” Her head drops, apology in her voice after being called an uninvited guest. “And it reminded me of the forests of my home, far away from here.” The beautiful, vast forests of the Shenandoah Valley, in Virginia. women are like tricks by sleight of hand which, to admire, we should not understand