After a bite of this,

A smackeral of that,

And a teensy taste of one of these,

I’m sure you’re ready for some of this.

For the previous Gift, go here.

For those of you who don’t know, the Gift is a story about a girl named Samantha who finds a mysterious gift hidden in her hutch at her parent’s mountain cabin.  She thinks it’s from her long-time boyfriend, Jeremy, and is hoping it’s an engagement ring.  The tag on the present is signed by a mysterious “Me” and turns out to be a tiny flower.

The next morning, a jeweled pendant is lying in the middle of the flower.  As Samantha, her girlfriends and her annoying boyfriend Jeremy try to figure out where the necklace came from, they get swept up in an adventure that will take them places they never dreamed…

To read more, go to the Never Ending Stories page above.  All the archives of the Gift are available there, and Twirl is coming soon!

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Leaving Jeremy out on the porch talking to crickets, Rouge’s grandmother shut the door firmly behind them.  With her lips pressed firmly together, she bustled about the small cottage drawing the curtains closed and flipping out several of the lights.  Crooking her finger at Rouge, Ashley and Cleo, she stepped into the kitchen.

“What’s she doing?” Ashley whispered to Rouge, taking Cleo’s arm.

“I don’t know,” Rouge murmured, his face creased with worry.  “I’ve never seen her like this.”

They crowded into the small kitchen.  The walls were painted a pale green and the cabinets were a buttery pine, with a battered pine table to match.  Grabbing a small black book from her hutch, Rouge’s grandmother placed it on the center island of the kitchen and pointed.

“Come to me,

Wearing nothing but jewels and leaves.

With a flower in your hair,

I’ll wed thee under the stars.”

Ashley blinked at her.  “I don’t get it.”

Rouge shook his head.  “I’m afraid I don’t get the connection either, Gran.”

The woman huffed and brushed a few dangling strands of silver hair out of her face.  “Haven’t I taught you anything?”  Turning to the girls, she explained, “In Irish fairy tales, there are several instances where a male fairy will court a mortal woman.  He can tempt her with gifts, usually beautiful and exotic jewelry he’s gotten from the buccas. If Samantha accepted gifts from a fairy and is wearing them, she’s winding herself deeper and deeper into his spell.”

“It could be an elf,” Rouge said hopefully.  “Or maybe a dryad. Or maybe it’s a feisty coblynau.”

His grandmother gave him a stern look.  “You know as well as I do it is the daoine sidhe.”

Ashley raised her hand.  “Um, excuse me? We have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Rouge’s grandmother handed her the book.  “I don’t have time to educate you on all the fairies in Ireland.  You can read that on the plane.”

“Plane?” Rouge blinked at her.  “Gran, I’ve got a bar to run.  What do you mean, plane?”  His grandmother gave him an impatient glance and he shook his head.  “Oh no.  Oh no.  I’m not going.”

“What?” Cleo asked, cocking her head.

“She wants us to go to chasing around Ireland after some deranged fairy!” Rouge exploded.  “Gran, do you know how many places this fairy could be?  We don’t even know if it is a fairy.  Maybe it’s some crazy bloke over there that read too many fairy tales and is trying to make us think she’s been taken by the Good People.”

“Good people?” Ashley asked.  Cleo shrugged.

“It’s another word for Irish fairies,” Rouge’s grandmother explained.  Fixing her steely green eyes on her grandson, she spoke in a calm tone.   “Rouge, I’ve seen this pendant before.  And if it is what I think it is, Samantha is in grave danger.  Do you remember when your mother told you about how Elisa disappeared?”  Glancing at the two girls, she explained, “Elisa was my youngest daughter, Rouge’s aunt.  When she was sixteen, she disappeared for six months.”

“What happened?” Cleo gasped.

“The police said she had run away, but she said she had been kidnapped,” Rouge’s grandmother said, her voice tight with rage.  “She said he had lured her with jewels and kept her trapped…no one believed her but me.  You should have seen her when she came back.  Her hair was wild and full of sticks and leaves.  She was covered in mud, with deep scratches running down her arms and legs.   It looked like she crawled out of the gates of hell.  The next day, she begged me to send her to America with Rouge’s parents.  She said she couldn’t be in Ireland, that he would always be looking for her.”

“Mom never mentioned Aunt E was kidnapped,” Rouge replied, his forehead wrinkled. “Who kidnapped her?”

Rouge’s grandmother’s face was a strange mixture of sorrow and rage.  “The Fin Bhera,” she whispered.

It was the only time Ashley had seen Rouge look scared.

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Samantha stared at the necklace in her hand.  The smooth silver chain was wrapped around her fingers, the diamond and blue topaz pendant twinkling even in the dense fog around them.  Shrugging, she raised the chain to slip over her head.  The man from the bar nodded, a smile spreading across his face.

Suddenly, a stream of birds burst from a tree nearby.  Samantha shrieked and ducked as the birds squawked and beat their wings around her head.  The necklace fell to the ground.  From the corner of the rock, a pale hand slowly pulled it under the thick moss and twigs.  Screaming and slapping at her head, Samantha hopped around the rock in her tall boots.

With an irritated growl, the man in black spoke a harsh word in a foreign tongue.  The birds immediately flew upward into the trees, disappearing among the dark green leaves in an instant.  Panting, Samantha glared up at him.

“Friends of yours?”

“No,” the man replied simply.  He looked at her empty hands.  “Where is the necklace?”

Samantha looked down at her hands and gasped.  “Oh no! I must have dropped it!”  She fell to her knees and dug through the moss and mulch around the rock, sweeping dirt from one side to the other as she searched for the chain.  “It’s gone!” she wailed.  “It’s gone!”

The man’s face contracted in a snarl, then smoothed instantly into a plastic smile.  “Let’s go then.  He wouldn’t want you to worry.”

“Who?” Samantha replied, allowing the man to lead her out of the forest.   What choice did she have?  Perhaps, he might know the way to cable television and room service.  “Who doesn’t want me to worry?”

As the man’s calm voice faded into the trees and their forms disappeared in the shadows of the forest, a tiny sigh of relief filled the air.  The wood fairy watched Samantha with a grin.

“Thanks, Mel,” she spoke to the goblin lurking under the rock.  “I owe you one.”

“Why help her?” the goblin asked, his yellow eyes blinking as he stared at Samantha’s form in the distance.  “She’s not from here, is she?”

“No,” the wood fairy replied, shaking her head.  “Not yet.  But if I don’t help her, she’ll never leave.  She won’t be able to.”

To be continued….

Stay tuned, Invisible Friends!  Tomorrow, we have a speech from Queen Bitty.  Wednesday, we have a tasty recipe and Thursday, a special tribute to someone special here at the Pond.  Friday we have Twirl and Sunday, our first featured Creative Woman–Gisele!

That’s right!  Twice a month, I’ll feature a fabulous interview with a creative woman here at the Pond.  They might be an artist, a cook, designer or mom who makes every day magical for her kids!  If you want to be featured or want to nominate someone to be featured, contact me with the contact form on my site.  Stay tuned!