Fairy Bunking Chapter 1: Bunking the Dragon

Near twilight, they found a grove awash with golden summer sunlight. In the near-still air, the long shadows slept beside the high grass and amidst richly perfumed blossoms. A small party of hummingbirds, drunk with nectar and favoring some homely lilies, whispered sweet, unintelligible verse; the lilies were quite taken by the attention. The air was thick with pollen and the sweet aroma of carnations. Beside a blue-gray brook that wound its way along the edge of the grove, they stood barefoot on a serene patch of moss.

Alacrity squeezed her toes into the moss, and enjoyed the union of flesh with nature. She purposefully looked into the darkening woods, not at him, and unslung the rifle from her shoulder. The sling slipped through her hands and the rifle dropped into the moss, the muzzle clattering against his metal tipped boot. Her eyes squinted and she felt rather embarrassed. "Sorry," she said under her breath.

Ubermensch crouched and moved his boot and Alacrity's rifle muzzle so the muzzle was firmly seated on the back of the boot. His finger touched the front site post, and he looked up at her with an enamored smile. "I see you blackened your sites."

She demurred. "You said it was easier to see the site if the silver tip was black."

Ubermensch stood and their eyes met, both squinting as the sunlight blazed through the forest canopy. He looked down her armored arm and touched his fingers to the flare of her metallic cuff. "The scrollwork is amazing. Did you do this yourself?"

Alacrity's eyes brightened and remained fixed to his. "Yes." She slowly turned her wrist and their gloved fingers mingled. "The metal was very hard to work with."

Ubermensch lifted his other hand and touched her cheek, and felt a tingle throughout his body. He wanted to kiss her and felt himself on a precipice that lay before the vastness of everlasting romance.

Alacrity took a small step closer and her armored chest clanged against his. Her heart beat with a pure desire for Ubermensch's affections, and she whispered, "It feels so strange."

His kiss nearing, he nodded. "As though I had never kissed another fairy before this moment."

"Yes," she agreed, and could feel his breath on her mouth. "But you used to kiss me all the time."

His lips hovered near hers, but then retreated. "Then why do I hesitate?"

"And why don't I just kiss you myself?" she asked, then took a step back and clasped her hands behind her back. "It's been years since I kissed another fairy, or even wanted to."

Ubermensch clasped his hands behind his back and looked along the undulations of Alacrity's lithe body. Then, he picked up the rifles, took her hand in his, and lead her into the soft pallor of the dying sun. "Let's just enjoy our mythic kiss, then."

"Glitterati would have kissed you back," Alacrity said, having to concentrate on moving as a fairy should in the restrictive armor.

"Yes," he admitted with a coy smile, "but she would have kissed you, too."

Alacrity's laugh was sharp. "Yes, she would have. But who first? Me or you?"

Now, Ubermensch became pensive. "I'm vexed. Would she act first, or would she start some mischief until either of us swept her in our arms and did it ourselves?"

"I'm not so sure about the sweeping up in the arms part, but perhaps you're right. She would think of something unbelievably childish and frolic off until she and anyone dumb enough to follow would be hopelessly lost." Alacrity's eyes flashed and she squeezed Ubermensch's hand. "By that logic, neither one of us would be kissed by her, then."