24. Fun, the year of the Unicorn

Dear diary,

I keep telling you about different parts of my life and how it is living the life of a fairy, but I keep avoiding talking about the most important topic in my life, him.

My darling elf is always in the front of my mind, but I guess I was a bit scared to talk about him. He is like a dream come true, and I am afraid that by talking about him too much, I would wake up from that wonderful dream.

I think that finally, I am ready to talk about him and to accept that everything that is happening is truly real. It's high time I told you about our booming love and how it all started. You must have been curious about it.

How does a fairy even meet an elf? Well, usually fairies don't meet elves, I guess I am just a fabulous exception. Before I tell you more about it, I must admit that the day I met him is now what I consider the happiest day of my life (I didn't think that at the time), not that I would ever tell him that, it might make him even cockier than he already is. As I already told you, he is kind and goodhearted, but sometimes he can get a bit overconfident, so I do my best to keep him grounded. I mean who else can better keep him grounded than my humble self.

The first meeting between me and Van didn't go so well. When I first met him, it was after I already heard some awful stories about him. You see, even though the fairies didn't hang out with the elves, some rumors still managed to reach us.

Honestly, I am not a big fan of rumors, but my friend Linky, well she loves a good rumor almost as much as she loves spreading it around. Some of my animal friends aren't much better than her, so I heard the rumor more than once, and I am ashamed to admit that I accepted it as a fact, without checking it, or even bothering to think about the possibility that all those things weren't true.

Some things they were saying sounded pretty bad as the one about him being a bad guy looking for trouble and not caring about who got hurt in the process. There were some stories about him getting into fights for no apparent reason, about him being a player and hurting a lot of his romantic partners in the process, and so on.

Some gossips were very specific, while others were as vague as saying he is a bad guy just because everyone says he is. Honestly, I didn't care, I was just glad I was forewarned so that I could stay away from him. I thought to myself that it didn't even matter since I didn't spend any time with the elves. I preferred sticking with my kind. It turned out that destiny had a surprise for me. It wanted to test my limits and beliefs, and it did such a good job by putting Van on my path.

That day started as a regular day off for me. I was having some fun with Clementine, my friend, the mare. There was a new pasture she wanted to show me. She convinced me and our other friends to go with her since she described it as a beautiful place filled with the most amazing flowers, and some astonishingly big red and white mushrooms. So, we went there and honestly, it was as fun as I expected it to be. Everything we did together with Clementine always was, but something happened... I guess it was kind of my fault because I didn't check out the surrounding area first. Usually, I did that when we found a new place to play around but that day, I was especially distracted by a new type of flower I was trying to create. If I am being honest, although it was my day off, and we were playing around my head was still at work, thinking about that perfect combination that kept eluding me.

What can I say, when you love your job sometimes it is very hard to stop thinking about it even while running around with your friends. Anyway, because of my misstep, we ended up in a lot of trouble.

Namely, while we were frolicking around, jumping up and down and twirling around, well mostly Clementine and I, if I am being honest, a cowboy appeared out of nowhere. Although he couldn't see me, I was in trouble, because when any of my friends were in trouble, I was in trouble, too.

I tried distracting him with some fairy dust while Clementine was trying to run away, but it wasn't working, I ran out of ideas when something surprising happened. An elf appeared and not any elf, it was Van. I was sure of that, although I had never seen him before that moment, since all those who gossiped about him didn't fail to offer a physical description in case anyone was to encounter him.

I thought he was there to make our escape even more difficult, but he surprised me by helping us out. He used his powers to change the reality that the cowboy saw, instead of a beautiful mare that Clementine was he was starting to see something completely different, I am not sure what.

All I know is that the cowboy's eyes grew wider, and he backed out of the pasture only to turn and run for his life as he reached the end of the pasture. Although I was grateful for his help, I didn't want to stick around to thank Mr. Bad Boy, but my dear friend was so grateful that she rushed forward to thank Van.

She was so nice and grateful that it seemed to make him uncomfortable like it was strange for him that someone saw him as a good guy. If I am being honest, I found it cute how he seemed to shift uneasily at being thanked, and shuffle around not seeming to know what to do.

Even though I found him cute, I tried to hide my presence. Nevertheless, he seemed to sense me, and his eyes started roaming around until he zoomed in on my small form.

A regular human would have seen me as just some other regular creature, maybe a butterfly or a bird, but Van, he knew better. There was an obnoxious smirk growing on his, a moment ago cute face.

"Well, well if it ain't a fairy. Never in my life did I think a fairy would grace me with her presence," he said rather formally as he mock bowed in my general direction.

To be honest, that made me furious, and for some reason, I didn't want that unpleasant man to look down on me. In consequence, I started growing until I was about his size.

No one was more shocked by that development than me. First of all, I had never actually gotten angry before that moment, and secondly, I had no idea how I made my body grow since I didn't do it on purpose. I guess it was a kind of defense mechanism.

The other possible reason was that my anger was so big that I needed a bigger body to contain it. I can't tell you who was more shocked, me, my friends or Van. From his shocked expression, it was easy to guess that he had never seen anything similar to what I did, and it made me a bit smug to know that I could stun the tough guy.

My pleasure was short-lived since I didn't account for the fact that not only my body but also my wings became much bigger. Having not taken that into account, I lost my balance, and I would have fallen on my face if Van hadn't caught me.

He seemed to do it on a reflex but, I blushed as his hands went around my waist and tried to steady me. With a lot of effort on both sides, I managed to stand with my wings tucked back, perfectly balanced. As soon as I felt safe on my feet, I let go of Van's arms, which I hadn't even noticed I was holding.

At that moment I wasn't sure if the red fire spreading through my face and generally my whole body was anger or embarrassment. My guess would have been both because I was angry about his earlier behavior, I was angry that he caught me and in consequence that I had one more thing to thank him for.

"Thanks," I said through gritted teeth while my eyes couldn't stop spitting fire in his general direction.

He seemed a bit stunned by my reaction, but soon enough his confidence was back.

"Hm, isn't that interesting? A fairy with some spunk, I like that." He said as he winked at me.

What I thought at that moment were a lot of colorful insults that a decent fairy should never say, so instead of saying anything, I just stared daggers at him. Undeterred by my obvious hostility, he introduced himself.

"I am Van, and what might your name be, fair lady?" He said.

"I know who you are," I said refusing to tell him my name.

However, Clementine was far politer.

"My name is Clementine, and this is my friend Lyna. We are so pleased to meet you." She answered politely although it was quite obvious, I wasn't pleased to meet him.

He didn't let that get to him, so he just answered politely.

"The pleasure is all mine." As he said that I looked into his fascinating blue eyes, and I felt like I was getting lost in their depth.

I wasn't comfortable with eye contact, but for some reason, his eyes held my gaze for far longer than it was normal for me. I simply couldn't look away from them.

Then he smiled, a genuine smile that made his whole face light up. I was in awe, but I didn't let it show, I pretended that I was red with rage and not embarrassment while it was both.

And that is how it all started.

I feel like I should go to bed now, it's very late, and I have to work tomorrow but don't worry I will be sure to tell you how we went from that unusual encounter to being a couple soon enough.