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Outcast sidhe queen
I was still a little girl, about seven years old I think, as the strange man camein our village. Our people gathered to look at him and at his odd horse. I heldmy little brother by the hand to protect him.“Is there a young lady with fair hair and black dress among you? Did any of you see her?”Nobody answered at first. They were all mesmerized by him. He repeated hiswords three times. “Did any of you see her?” I remember his scream goingdown my spine; it woke me up with a shudder.“No, we didn’t see the lady, strange man”, my grandpa answered, “but it’slate and dark and you must be tired and hungry. You are welcome in myhouse and I’m eager to hear more about her over a hot meal.”“Are you sure, grandpa? He looks rather terrifying”, I whispered to him.“Terrifying? No, I don’t think so. It’s just that he isn’t one of us. And he likesyou a lot.”“Does he?”He kept looking at me in a certain way indeed as we sat near the fire in ourhome.“Your niece, she is beautiful!”“I hope I didn’t do the wrong thing when I welcomed you in my house, youngman. My niece is just a little girl.”“My heart is as shining as my face, old man. She reminds me of my belovedsister, the lady with fair hair and black dress, that’s all. I like the little boytoo. What’s your name?”“Angus”, my brother answered.“Did their parents die?”“They don’t have parents. I bought them”.“You bought them?”“Yes, I bought them from a lady”.“What lady? And why did she sell them?”“She lived inside a hill, miles away from here. I was passing by one day; shesprang up in front of me with the babies and told me she had run out of foodand couldn’t keep them any longer. She asked for a coin and gave me thebabies. Then she vanished from sight.”“Oh, I see…”
 
“Why don’t you tell us more about your lady in black dress?”“The lady with fair hair was the sidhe queen and her husband was the sidheking. She loved him more than she loved herself. She promised the king aprecious gift; she promised she would give birth to a boy and a girl, withgolden hair and skin like the rose petals. And she said their son wouldcommand the sun and the moon. The king’s best friend was in love with the queen and had been many timesrejected by her. The sidhe women loved him because he was brave andbeautiful. When the queen gave birth to her babies, he stole them andreplaced them with two hideous cats. He put them in a basket and gave it tothe king. <Here you are, my king, your wife’s gift, the wondrous babies! Asyou see, these cats were all that came out of her>. The king went mad and threw the basket and it rolled on the floor with thecats inside. He called for his wife and they started to argue. She had tears inher eyes. <How can you believe such a horrible thing, my king? He stole mybabies. I couldn’t have given birth to a pair of cats.><But you did! Go away! Leave and never come back!><My king, listen to me! This man whom you call your friend, he loves me andhe is envious of our happiness…><No more! I will hear you no more! Go away!> This is how she left and went out into the world and I haven’t heard from hersince then.”“The lady with fair hair and black dress… does she have a name?” grandpaasked.“Our names are not from this world and can’t be uttered here”.We finished eating and he said: “Come with me, the three of you! I’ll takeyou to the woman inside the hill”.“How long is the journey?”“Shorter than you expect”. He put us on his horse and we rode off. After onlya short while we stopped near a dark mound.“Come out! I said come out!” The mound opened and a lady with very longhair stepped out with a candle in her hand.“It’s late. Who are you? What do you want?”“Are you alone?” the stranger asked.“I’m with my husband”.“Can I see him?”“He is sleeping, my lord”.He quickly took her in his arms and put her aside and then rushed into herhouse, dragging me and my little brother with him. There was a frail and
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Crow34

You are a very good writer.

reply01 / 21 / 2010
Sarita Brown

what a tantalising story!!

reply11 / 17 / 2009
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