Dockalfar by PL Nunn Page B

“Why is that?”
    “You just are.” And that was that.
    The day passed. The forest thinned, and by evening it was less a jungle they walked through than a fine grove of spaced pines and grass covered ground. A fern occasionally popped its head up, but all in all the undergrowth was sparse. It made travel considerably easier. The sprites danced around them as evening fell. Aloe ignored them. Victoria grinned at their antics.
    They slept in a bed of ferns under a towering pine. There was just a hint of stars in the sky. It was very nice to know the sky was still up there. After so many days under a ceiling of leaves. Aloe sat with her back against the tree and teased the two sprites that had appeared to pester them. Victoria watched her in amazement.
    A point of light appeared at her finger tip.
    She sent it roving out to chase first one sprite then the other. The soft greenish glow of it made her face seem even less human. The impish smile did not help.
    Victoria stared at the sidhe-constructed point of light. It was every bit as deft as the sprites. Aloe controlled it with twitches of the finger it had been born of.
    Victoria watched the finger, then the sidhe in wonderment for the capacity of magic.
    Faintly she saw a glowing nimbus that surrounded the girl. A spark of inner light so much more complex and wonderful than those of the fairies to be almost a different thing entirely. But it was not. It was the same. Just so much more. Victoria wondered if it were Aloe herself or sidhe in general who shined so much more brightly.
    Aloe turned and caught her staring.
    Her brows drew a bit, then narrowed and the glow of inner light was cut off as if a door had slammed shut. The sidhe glared at Victoria accusingly.
    “How dare you intrude?”
    Victoria gaped, wondering what blunder she had made. “Intrude? How?”
    Aloe pouted, as if she thought Victoria were feigning ignorance. She said with stiff correctness, “It’s not polite to stare at another’s soul.”
    “I wasn’t staring…well I was, but I didn’t know…. I couldn’t help. I’m so sorry I intruded.”
    Aloe sniffed, mollified by the apology. “Well, since you didn’t know, I forgive you. Only blood kin and lovers and the closest of friends have the right to look on another’s soul. It is very private.”
    “The fairies…they were so open. I could see right through them. They didn’t seem to mind.”
    “They’re tramps, the lot of them,”
    Aloe informed her. “And mindless. None of them could put up a shield if they tried.”
    “They were really fairly shallow compared to your – uh – soul.”
    “I should think so.” Aloe eyed her warily for a moment, then sank back down against the tree. “I wonder what a human soul looks like?”
    “Can’t you see?”
    “As I said, it is impolite to pry.”
    “I never saw souls before,” Victoria murmured drowsily. “This place is fantastical.”
    “Who says it is the place?”
    The forest ended all together the next day. One moment, they were walking in the shade of tall, graceful trees and the next, the vast expanse of a rolling, grass covered land stared back at them. As far as the eye could see the hills roamed.
    Gentle, perfect mounds that were like nothing so much as a desert of green covered dunes. The forest was like an unbroken line at the boarder. Amazingly straight and clear cut. Victoria stared in awe. Her abused bare feet took delight in the soft grass. Phoebe curled about her ankles, emitting an air of uncertainty. A gulun knew very well where it belonged and it was not in the unbroken land of a plain. Victoria crouched down to scratch behind her ears. Aloe hardly hesitated at all.
    “Hollow Hills,” she said matter-of-factly.
    Victoria blinked up at her owlishly.
    Another name out of myth. “And I suppose that elves live under those hills, celebrating endlessly.”
    “Elves? I should hope not. Any decent folk would move away were that the case. Who wants an elf for a neighbor?