Free Dark Confluence by Rosemary Fryth, Frankie Sutton Page A

with her nose to the computer screen. Rather a long walk and a hot breakfast after beckoned her outside.
     
    Quickly, she dressed and locked the house, and walked down the few stairs to the springy grass of the lawn. The air was almost intoxicating, she breathed deeply of it, feeling her skin tingle in response. Reaching the road, she randomly chose a direction and began to stroll. Her shoes crunched along the gravel edge of the bitumen occasionally disturbing small insects which startled, flew away from her. Every so often, a car would rush past in a blur of metal and noise. After a few minutes, she turned off the road and clambering through a barbed wire fence, walked out into one of the neighbouring paddocks.
     
    The paddock had seen much rain and little grazing so the grass had grown to reach her knees. Mindful of snakes, she picked up a long stick, which had evidently blown in by the storm, and hit the ground ahead of her. The unaccustomed exercise brought a rose to her normally pale cheeks and she looked for a good place to sit. Eventually she espied a clump of granite boulders off to one side and determinedly made her way to them. Most of the boulders were too steep to scramble up, however Jen found one she could clamber onto and sat panting with exertion.
     
    The view from the boulder was tremendous and Jen just sat staring out at the green and lush landscape. She could see a tractor working on of the fields in the distance, yet heard nothing, the wind taking the sound in the opposite direction. Above her, black cockatoos flew, looping and diving, catching the wind gusts. Off to one side a bunch of crows circled and called. Perhaps some stock had died. Remembering the lost child, Jen decided she would investigate before she returned home.
     
    “You pick the wild and lonely places to do your contemplation,” a familiar voice said suddenly.
     
    Jen jumped in surprise and turned around to encounter the leaf-green eyes of the one who had called himself Fionn. On the other hand, was it Fionn? She narrowed her eyes, this time he seemed much older, an elegant, mature man in his late forties with a face attractively lined. He was dressed differently this time, the jeans were gone, and instead he wore a black jacket and collared shirt, and black dress trousers. His long pale ash hair still hung about his shoulders. A pale clay pipe poked out of his jacket’s top pocket.
     
    “You!” she said.
     
    He nodded smiling.
     
    “I’ve been warned about you,” she accused.
     
    “I’d not harm you, Jen,” he said, lithely springing up to sit next to her on the rock. Idly, his hand covered hers, which made her heart jump.
     
    “So what do they say about me?” he asked, smiling at her. She felt her bones melt under his warm gaze.
     
    “No...not...ab...about you,” she stammered, blushing deeply.
     
    “About what I am?” he asked her directly, his fingers lightly brushing hers.
     
    She nodded silently, her face suffused with a scarlet blush.
     
    “Then, what am I, in that I cannot be trusted?”
     
    “Fairy,” she finally breathed.
     
    He looked suddenly vexed, as if he objected to the name. “So I am caught out. Who enlightened you?”
     
    Jen stared at her boots, her emotions transfixed upon the play of his fingers upon her hand.
     
    “A friend,” she murmured quietly.
     
    He studied her face, “Do I disturb you Jen...Jenny of the sweet heathery hills of home.” He leant and breathed in her ear, “Your kind calls to us as bees to pollen laden flowers.”
     
    “My kind?” she gasped, her head spinning.
     
    “You, who see us and hear us, your voice is a siren song to me, sweet Jenny.”
     
    His hand reached up and turned her face to his. Gently, he kissed her, and her lips surrendered to his. He tasted of honey, cinnamon and smoky duskiness.
     
    “I would have you sweet Jenny. I would have you here now, upon these rocks. I would fill your empty heart with overflowing love.” He kissed