unpublished
The elf was playing in her backyard one morning after a rain when she caught her reflection in a puddle. Her heart dropped when she saw herself. She had become thin and pale with stringy hair and dull eyes. Her beautiful red frock was dirty, faded and frayed. "Oh what a wretched little elf I am!" she gasped. "What has become of my pretty red dress?" Her sadness would have turned her blue – but she discovered that she had no other colors. She'd lost all of her magic. Tears leaking slowly from her eyes, the elf sat quietly stirring the mud with a stick, erasing her reflection from the puddle.
Just then, she heard a rustling behind her. A young woman came walking out of the forest. She was tall and strong, wearing brown and green layers as though the forest had dressed her. Her long fiery hair was uncombed and peppered with leaves and flowers. Looking down at the elf, her face lit up like the summer sun. "My, what a darling little sprite you are!" she said.
Surprised, the elf looked at the mud and knit her brows. The Forest Lady knelt down beside the elf and rested her hand atop her small elfin fingers. "I am going on an adventure," she said. "Would you like to join me?" The little elf felt her heart rise just a bit and said, "Me? Yes, I'd like to… but I cannot. My family would miss me and I'm not allowed to wander off without permission." The Forest Lady smiled. "That is a good rule ordinarily, but we can go on a short adventure. Your family would not even notice that you were gone."
The little elf regarded the Forest Lady carefully. She felt it would be disobedient to go, yet there was something about this lady that she wanted to be near. Finally, she said, "All right. A short adventure, you promise?" "I promise," vowed the lady. And off they went toward the forest.
As they entered the woods, the elf felt a warmth and familiarity about her surroundings. She remembered all of the fun she had playing here and for a brief moment she wished to come back here and live. Then she remembered the wish that she made to have a family, and she knew she would have to go back. The Invisible Man and the Balloon Lady were, after all, nice people and they were so grateful that she had come to live with them.
When they had gone a little further into the brush, the Forest Lady stopped beside a large shady tree and sat down, leaning against the trunk. She patted the ground for the elf to sit, too. The elf was puzzled. "I thought we were going on an adventure," she said. "Well, you said it needed to be a short adventure," was the Forest Lady's reply. "Besides, adventures can be quiet." So the elf sat down and leaned against the tree trunk. They both sat very quietly for a few minutes, then the elf heard a small sound to her right. Looking over, she saw a mother deer and her fawn, nibbling their way through the underbrush. They nuzzled each branch softly as they chewed the tender leaves. The mother kept her head cocked toward her baby as she ate, and the fawn spent half its time tasting the new greenery and the other half suckling its mother's milk.
The little elf sat and watched, enrapt, for what seemed to be a long time. At last, the Forest Lady touched her shoulder and motioned that it was time to leave. They rose to their feet very slowly so as not to frighten the deer, then they turned and went back to the elf's backyard. As they walked back, the Forest Lady asked the elf why she had left the forest. "Because I wanted a family, like the fawn has her mother and father," answered the elf.
"Hmm," mused the Forest Lady, "Is that what a family looks like? I didn't know." And she walked on briskly, just slightly ahead of the elf.
They continued silently on through the wood. When they reached the clearing, the Forest Lady smiled at the elf and said, "Would you like to do this again tomorrow?" Surprised, the elf stammered, "Oh, yes, I'd like that very much!"
