Enchanted Folk A Sidhe Fairytale by Otilia Tena

Rate this Story (5 best) 1 2 3 4 5

They let me go in the end and I went to my fiance's house. They were all worried. My grandpa was there too.
"Where have you been, Ilana?"
I didn't dare look at him.
"Did you meet the enchanted folk?" my fiancé asked.
"Who?"
"They beg and steal and rape and they lead us astray".
"Don't talk like that about them, young man", grandpa said. "They hear everything. We must tame them, not make them run wild." He turned to me. "Do you remember what I told you when you were little?"

"You told me the woods can be dangerous too."
"You met the fairy folk, didn't you, Ilana? You are changed." He took me by the hand and whispered in my ear: "You must stay here with your fiancé. The young faeryman wants to take you away."
"I know that he is married. I remember he took grandma as midwife to help him. He's got a wife!"
"I didn't say anything about his wife. I said he wants to take you away. Take care of yourself!"
I heard his flute at midnight and got out of bed. I opened the window and he took me in his arms. His lips were like nothing I had ever known.
"Come with me, Ilana! I've been longing for you for so long!"
"Come with you where?"
"To the land of Niamh and Oisin. Where all are beautiful and nobody dies".
"Oisin returned an old man. I do love you but I don't know who you are and I don't live by your rules."
Then I heard their strange laughter again. "Rules? She said rules?"
He put me down and they surrounded me again and danced and laughed.
"Ripe rape ripe rape she is ripe and good for rape! Uuh! Uuh! Ripe rape ripe rape she is ripe and good for rape!"
"No! Leave her alone!" That was grandma's voice. She was there, all of them were there or so I felt but I couldn't see them.
"Young man, I beg you leave her alone! I helped your wife a long time ago. Why are you doing this to us? Please, go back to where you came from and never return!"


I didn't see anything; he put me on his horse and carried me off with the merry convoy.
We hid and we made love and danced the days away. He killed our children and sent me to steal buttermilk and babies and treated me badly.

"You promised to take me to the enchanted land".
"And you believed!"
"Uuh! Uuh! She believed you! Uuh! Uuh!"
I covered my ears not to hear their mocking laughter again. Then they moved their heads with both hands from one side to the other, in distress.
"You said I am one of your kin". I felt like weeping, I hid my face in both hands but tears wouldn't come. All that time- Was it days? Was it years?- I had been trying to weep my sorrow away but tears wouldn't come. I remembered the things I said when I was little; I would say I was more beautiful than them and one day I would be with them. Grandma always told me to mind my words because they heard everything.
One day, as I lay in the flower bed, I heard a little bird: "My mistress, my mistress, hear what I say. Your husband laid Ilana in your bed".
"Stupid bird! I am Ilana! Since you are blind, I'll cut your eyes out!" I caught the bird and maimed it and sent it back to its mistress.