A little battered tag was tucked in the corner of my window. 1, Fairy Woods, it read.

I let out an elated laugh and quickly placed it under my mattress where a pile of identical tags already lay. Not bothering with shoes, I ran out of my house to the looming, shadowy woods that lay just beyond my white picket fence. It was a small barrier that bordered the last of the houses—the others lay in a neat row along the street—right before the woods begun.

I easily leapt over it and raced into the woods with wild abandon, not minding the shadowy tendrils that reached out and entwined themselves around my arms, legs and torso and the whispers that sent my hair tumbling out behind me with a phantom wind in greeting.

The strangeness didn't scare me. These woods were my home—always had been, always would be and as a child, I had dubbed them 'The Fairy Woods' not realizing quite how true that name was... And how tightly intertwined I was with the people among the trees behind my house.

Little green eyes blinked at me out of a nearby bush and I stopped suddenly, mad sprint forgotten.

"Lesh? Is that you?"

The green eyes disappeared, and silver and black muzzle poked out of the bushes.

"Lesh!" I exclaimed excitedly. "It is you!"

He remained in the bushes.

 I crouched down. "I'm sorry I've been gone so long. I didn't have a choice. Forgive me?"

I waited patiently for a few seconds before the fox emerged from the bush. His silver fur was as glossy and sleek as always and he stalked over to me, eyes full of haughty disdain. 

I sighed and put a pleading tone in my voice. "I'm sorry, Lesh. I really didn't have a choice."

His sly green eyes watched me carefully for a long second with far more intelligence than any fox ought to possess before turning on his tail and started walking. When I didn't follow, he turned his head back to me with a glare that seemed to say, well, aren't you coming?

I beamed and raced after him.

We headed to the deeper, winding part of the forest where the trees whispered even louder and roots curled, waiting just off the edge of the path. Lesh's silver fur seemed to glow in the dark as if the shadows refused to touch him. They still reached out and brushed me though, as if I was familiar enough to love but strange enough to wonder.

The fox abruptly turned right into a tall thicket and without hesitation, I dived in after him. Branches snatched at me and tangled themselves in my wild curls—now a chaotic mess from running through the woods.

Wincing, I gently tapped each branch with a finger. "Lavender's blue, dilly, dilly, lavender's green," I chanted each time I did so, and they gently receded without complaint. I made my way through the thicket doing that same thing, Lesh a darting, silver shadow in front of me. 

When we finally reached the end a little worse for wear, I stumbled out of the greenery, quickly forgetting everything but the ivy-covered cottage in front of me with a little sign beside it: 1, Fairy Woods.

The front door was slightly open. He was waiting for me.

I took a deep breath and walked in, fox at my heels.

He was sitting inside in front of his hearth with his wonderful cobweb wings streaming out behind him. It had been years since I had last seen him, and though he didn't age, he had changed his appearance to match my years of sixteen.

"Hi Vip," I said softly for the first time in four years. 

From his seat, he looked back at me and the first thing I saw was his impossibly blue eyes—as deep as a thousand oceans, as timeless as time and completely depthless all the same.

A beatific smile bloomed on his angelic face. "El! I am so glad you came."

"How could I not? I missed this place," I said honestly, for honesty is imperative with the fae. If you are well-mannered, then they shall most likely be so back.

He stood up all too gracefully and walked towards me, long wings trailing in his wake and appearing utterly fae and very inhuman and exactly what he was. The way Vip moved was like a river flowing, a viper undulating; both threatening and beautiful at the same time.

I suddenly felt very small and very plain.

My breath caught as he stroked his long fingers softly against my dirt-streaked face. "El," he whispered. "My El. Of course, you missed our forest. It courses through your blood." He rested his hand where my heart pumped loudly. "This forest is where you belong." His face turned sad. "But every time you come, you leave."

I pulled away from him. Somewhere in my ancestry, someone passed down fae blood. It didn't affect every generation, but for me, it had hit hard. From a very young girl, I was drawn to this place—to the whispering trees and the shadows that loved me. I was even more drawn when I befriended a sly, moonlit fox and magic, blue-eyed boy with wings that looked like cobwebs but were as strong as steel. But the deeper I got into this strange world, the more I became this world.

My once brown eyes lightened to forest green, and my hair became a wild, untameable tangle of curls—as wild as the thicket I just passed through. The slight traces of magic I had, became more powerful until I needed only a chant and a gentle touch to manipulate that which shouldn't be manipulated. Strange things happened when I was upset as well. Things I hadn't even needed a chant for.

I both loved it and feared it—the same way I had always felt about Vip—but I was always far too scared to be a part of this life forever no matter how much everything in me longed for it. Longed to return where it belonged.

"Vip," I whispered back. "Must we talk about this? I was changed by our time in the woods and my mother noticed. She sent me away because of it. And now," I said. "Now, I am unfit for a life of wilderness and magic."

Excuses. I always gave excuses.

And this time, he seemed to know that.

He cocked his head at me, blue eyes like crashing ocean waves. "You wouldn't be lying to me, would you El?"

I shook my head.

He laughed softly, the sound sending a shiver up my spine. "Because it seems to me, that a girl with the blood of the sidhe who runs out of her home without a thought to her mortal family into a magic forest without shoes, travels alongside with the leshy fox and enchants thicket branches as easily as breathing is the exact opposite of unfit."

I didn't move as he brought his face close enough to mine that our breaths mingled. "Do you know what that sounds like to me, El?"

I just stood there, feeling very much like I should be more afraid.

"It sounds like," he whispered to me. "You need to be reminded what living as yourself is truly like. And then, you will stay forever." He finished with a soft, loving smile and I felt myself waver.

I looked down and saw Lesh's bushy tail curled softly around my leg.

I broke.

"Alright," I breathed. "Persuade me."

And then I saw Vip laugh for the first time in years and a faery laughing was quite the sight to behold. Vip laughed like the trees' whisper except his was louder and stronger and so, so, beautiful. Soon, I found myself laughing alongside him with no thought in my mind for why.  

He stopped and held my hands. "Allow me to escort you to our moon dance tonight El."

My eyes widened. Every full moon, the faeries held a revel of dancing and partying and danger and fun—and every story I knew told me not to go. Of course, if I were to listen to those stories then they would be warding me against my own growing blood and power. I would be the monster. 

This, I think, was why the next word that came out of my mouth was yes.

********

We walked hand in hand through the forest looking quite odd. Me, a girl with green eyes, corkscrew curls, bare feet, mortal clothing and leshy fox trailing at my side. 

Vip in the leafy clothing of the fae with long arched ears, eyes brighter than the sky, hair the colour of the rich forest earth and magnificent shimmering wings trailing behind. 

A Lord of the Forest and a barely human sixteen-year-old girl. 

*******

When we reached the clearing it was everything I had dreamed and more. Vines with huge flowers of every colour crawled up trees as tall as the sky and there was a wooden table laden with food and drink. 

A warning drifted into my head. Never eat or drink the food of the fae or you shall never be able to return. But when Vip offered me a cup of sparkling, crystal clear water, I couldn't resist taking a sip. And what a wonder it was! I felt as if I was flying, as though I was free and I would never, ever go back and there was colour and beauty and two gorgeous blue eyes looking at me if I was the beautiful thing and soft lips asking me if I wanted to dance. 

A small voice whispered a warning to me. Do not dance with faeries for you shall never be able to stop. But drunk on faery wine and pure magic, I paid no heed to that voice and accepted the hand offered to me by Vip. 

And then he swept me away and we were dancing and the whispers and the wind was moving my hair and there were other faeries here dancing too. Will-o-the-wisps trailing liquid starlight, tiny pixies twirling around my head and dancing with my wild hair. Tree people danced with goat people and the shadows didn't touch me. Life had never been so beautiful and wonderful and I had never felt so happy. 

I became aware of Vip tugging at my arm and turned to him. He was smiling as he had never smiled at me before and I smiled back. 

"Would you like me to show you something?" he asked me, excitement vibrating in every word. 

"Yes, please," I answered happily as I never had before. 

I followed him to a small pond. Its surface was still and reflected the moonlight and us. 

"What do you see?" he asked. 

I looked. He was the same—as beautiful and strange as ever— but where I was standing, there was a stranger in my place. 

Wild corkscrew curls of brown and molten gold floated around her face— and what a face it was. High sidhe cheekbones with long arching ears and as my reflection reached up to touch those ears, her fingers were long and slender and she moved like an undulating viper. Her eyes had changed from a brown to green to somewhere between green and gold and her skin was patterned like smooth tree bark. 

"Is this me?" I asked and the girl in the pond's lips moved too. 

Vip was still smiling. "Yes, El. This is you. You as you were always meant to be."

I reached down and touched the reflection with stranger's hands. The pond's surface shattered and I flinched back. "She's beautiful."

Vip tilted my chin to look up at him and his beautiful eyes. "Yes, you are. Will you stay with me forever?"

I thought about it and realised I was no longer afraid. "Yes."

He laughed and kissed me and I kissed him back. 

The fox at my side smiled.