When Summer Stole My Heart

Faeries. Everyone believes that they are tiny, beautiful winged creatures who help nature and flit around with no care. But, that is not what my grandmother would tell me. According to her Shillelagh, the village she lives in, and its local legends, they are creatures without the sense of good and bad. They coax young girls into Tomnafinnoge and then they are never seen again. They are conniving, cunning and strong. They are the most beautiful of all mythical beings which makes them just as dangerous.
‘Now darling, you mustn’t go into the woods at night, especially such a young and beautiful little girl such as yourself.’
I would look at her with my wide, innocent green eyes and ask why. Why were the woods so dangerous that I couldn’t go in? Why couldn’t I explore such a vast, dense, wondrous land that could hold so many things? And then she would reply in her gentle voice.
‘In Tomnafinnoge darling, lives evil creatures called faeries. And they are ruled by Dorian.’
And I would ask who that was.
‘The king of the faeries, the most dangerous of them all.’
She told me never to go into those woods.
Now I wish that I had listened.