Destiny

----------------------------------------

The next day, visitors came to the village. A troupe of costumed musicians, with brightly colored ribbons trailing from their instruments. They laughed and sang as they walked about, and children streamed out to dance to their music.

One girl, wearing an orange mask made to look like a fox’s face, caught my gaze. Slowly, one glittering eyelid lowered in a wink. I froze, but she’d already spun away, singing a tune about a sunshine lady to the smith’s apprentice.

She couldn’t be Vida. Her auburn hair was braided back, daylight showing brown roots that I hadn’t seen before, so I could clearly see that her ears were round. She didn’t have wings, and her short, sleeveless dress certainly couldn’t hide the gorgeous green things I’d seen last night.

I shook myself and turned away. I had chores to do…

Well, it wouldn’t hurt to ask.

I marched over to the girl, my heart pounding in my chest. If I was wrong– well, if I was wrong the worst that could happen was me embarrassing myself in front of a traveling musician who’d move on in a few days. And who definitely wouldn’t like girls. No other girl did.

Something inside told me I wasn’t wrong.

The fox girl’s face turned to me. The same long-lashed eyes I’d been lost in last night looked at me from behind her mask.

My mouth went dry. I hadn’t thought this through at all.

“My name’s–” I started.

She shook her head, speaking quickly and quietly. Though she looked different, her voice was the same silken one I'd heard from the sprite in the forest. “Not here. Not now. Not everyone is… Where can I meet you tonight during the performance?”

“Um… s-south side of the bonfire?” My words caught on each other and came out a question.

“South side, when I leave the stage.” She grinned and raised her voice and her lute. “Sure, I know that one! Who’s up for a round of The Foolish Fae?”

Someone began clapping to keep time as she started strumming her lute. “As I was out a-walkin’, one morning in the spring, I spied a fair maid dancin’, around the faerie ring!”

I joined in, clapping along, though my mind was elsewhere. How could she sing so casually of a wicked faerie so easily outwitted by a human girl, as if she wasn’t one? As if that wasn’t what humans thought of all faeries?

I had those questions still on my lips hours later, when I snuck away to meet her by the fire. I passed another couple kissing, a boy and girl I recognized. They were too wrapped up in each other to notice me as I crept around the flames twice as tall as I was.

“The maid, she laughed and spun around, declaring to the fae.”

I turned a full circle, trying to see her. “Vida?”

She appeared as her costumed human self first, then something fell away and revealed her full self, wings and ears and all. “‘My love thou shalt ever have, if you’ll always stay with me’,” she sang softly. Her voice carried so much sincerity, I couldn’t help but smile.

“That’s not the line,” I murmured as she took my hands. “At least, it’s not the one you sang earlier.”

“Call it artistic license.” Her fingers carded through my hair. “You came.”

“I– I wanted to see you again. And make sure it was really you.” As I said the words, I realized how silly they must sound.

Her clear, sparkling laugh made me look up. “Oh, love. When we leave, can I write to you? I’m not sure it’d work the other way around, we move a lot–”

“I want to come with you,” I blurted out.

Vida froze, fingers still in my hair. “Huh?”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

“I want to come,” I repeated. My nose burned, letting me know tears were on their way.

“Why? I mean– I thought– most people don’t want to leave their families?”

I grabbed her hand, looking at it instead of her face. Her nails were forest green, the paint chipping away on the first two fingers. “Vida, all I’ve ever wanted is to leave.”

Her hand wrapped around my wrist and she tugged me over to a tree, further from the fire’s flickering light. “Come on. Sit down.” She leaned against the tree, feet tucked under herself.

Daringly, I sat so close I was nearly on her lap.

“That works.” Vida put an arm around my shoulders, gently pulling me to rest against her. I tensed. Normally, I paid little notice to the soft rolls my stomach had developed in the past couple years, but now every ounce felt a contrast to Vida’s delicate frame.

She kissed my temple. “Stop wiggling, love. May I ask why you wanted to leave?”

Words refused to come. I leaned against her side. How was I supposed to express the deep dread I felt at the thought of living out my life the way my mother had, growing old in a tiny village where my life would hardly matter to anyone?

“Alright, may I tell you something?” Her voice was soft, vulnerable. I nodded, her heartbeat loud in my ear.

“I used to live in the Court of Avallon,” she said softly. “I grew up surrounded by fae of sunlight and summer warmth who held none in their hearts for anything that did not uphold the court’s perfect image. That included a young sprite who’d been betrothed as an infant, but had known as long as she could remember that she would never love him.” She sighed wistfully. “He was kind enough, but… I think faeries have forgotten what it’s like to live life without a mask. I chafed at mine as long as I can remember. Pretending to be something you’re not, keeping your face blank even if you’re threatened, having to keep your form perfect all the time… bright sun, it was exhausting.” She twirled one of my curls around her finger absently. “I wasn’t a very good faerie.”

“Is that why you left?” I asked.

Vida nodded. “I found out when I turned sixteen that I was to be married a few weeks later. I wasn’t ready to leave behind everything I’d ever known but I really wasn’t ready for marriage and all that meant. So I… left. Wrote a note confessing everything, including that I was determined to marry for love and that I only liked girls.” She chuckled, rubbing the back of her head. “It was three pages long and I wrote small. Poured out my heart in that letter, I did.”

“Oh, Vida.” I turned so I could hug her properly.

She patted my back. “It’s been four years since, I’ve gotten used to it.” Still, her voice sounded thick.

“You left because you didn’t fit in?” I asked.

“Isn’t that what I just said?” She kissed my hair softly.

“Me too.”

“Love, if you whisper so quietly I can’t hear you.”

“Me too,” I said, a bit louder. I swallowed past the lump in my throat, and finally the words spilled forth. “I think I’m broken. I wanted to be a boy when I was twelve, and when I was fourteen and all the other girls in class were talking about their crushes I tried to have a crush on a boy too like I did when I was younger but it wasn’t any of them, it was Lucinda, and I figured out how to hide it but it hurts, Vida, it hurts!” I burst into tears and hugged her tightly.

She was the only person I’d ever met who was broken like me, the only girl who liked girls. I couldn’t lose her so soon. Couldn’t go back to my life knowing she existed. I didn't know how I'd survive knowing she was out there and I was trapped here, looking at a future that had never felt right, the one where I'd marry a man I'd barely ever spoken to and have his children and take care of my mother when she grew old and–

One of her hands rubbed gentle circles on my back, pulling me away from my spiraling thoughts. My breath hitched and I let out a quiet sob. “We’ll be leaving in three or four days, love. We’ll leave in the morning, camp just out of sight, and wait for you, alright? I’ll come back to help if you want, but we need to be quiet. Blythe doesn’t want to get a reputation for kidnapping.” She chuckled dryly. “Seren thinks it’s probably futile, but Blythe insists we try, and when she sets her mind to something the decision’s final.”

“I don’t know any of the names you’re saying,” I sniffled. “And I’m getting snot all over your pretty dress.”

Vida laughed. “That’s okay, love. I have more, and you’ll meet everyone in a few days.”

“Should tell you my name,” I said. “If I’m coming with you.”

“No.” I felt her hand in my hair again.

“Why not?”

Her hand stilled for a moment, then lifted a few strands of my hair and let them fall slowly. “Because, love, we’re none of us the people we left behind. The girl I used to be was chained to the part she had to play. The girl I am now is free as a bird and doesn’t have to hide her truth anymore. Whatever your name is now, choose another.”

“What if I don’t want to?” My mind was already spinning with possibilities.

“Love, it's almost like you want me to enthrall you!” Vida shook her head. “There’s other reasons to, so I highly suggest that you choose another name, even just a placeholder. It was two weeks before I settled on Vida, for my new life– before that I was Leaf.”

“Destiny,” I said, looking up at her. “When you tell them about me, I want you to call me Destiny. Because I’m going to choose my own.”

Vida laughed and ruffled my hair. “Destiny. I like it.”