The fae realms were beautiful in winter.
They were beautiful all year around, and indeed the seasons in the land under the hill didn’t work the same way that they did in the mortal realms. Some areas were drenched perpetually in summer sun, some were full of endlessly falling autumn leaves, and some were held ever at that moment where spring buds are just about to open.
And some were perpetually snowy. Piles of perfect sparkling powder lay in drifts about the woods and the rivers and ponds lay frozen. Bushes were crowned with berries and branches hung thick with icicles.
And gentle snowflakes drifted down into the quiet.
Aileen was a spring fae, but she wandered. All the realms were beautiful, not just her own, and she loved to wander them. She giggled thoughtlessly among the frozen leaves, not feeling the cold except as a tickle.
As she span into a forest clearing, arms outstretched, she was surprised to see a shivering figure in the snow. Their cheeks were pale with cold and their eyes so different to Aileen’s. They were dark and warm, full of the life of the world above. This was a human.
Humans weren’t a rare sight in the fae realms. Either those with unclouded eyes who wandererd straight into the realm, or the chosen plaything of a fae, or even those who sought then out. For bargains.
This individual just looked very very lost. Aileen had seen humans before, so she knew this was a young one- not a child but barely an adult, still not herself. How odd of humans to change like that. She smiled and danced over to the quivering thing.
“Hello!” she said brightly, peering down at the thing. They were all curled up under a tree, their eyelashes coated in frost. “P-please,” they whispered, in a soft voice, “I’m… going to freeze!”
Aileen smiled indulgently. Humans were so sensitive! She plucked a flower from her hair and threaded it in the human’s - long and firey- and immediately warmth spread back through the human’s complexion. They stood and brushed the snow from their bare arms, blinking, as if in a daze.
“Thank you..” they said, looking warily at Aileen, as if she were a ferocious wild animal. It wasn’t an unfounded fear, really.
“I’m Aileen,” she said, holding her hand out to the human, “Come on, let’s go!”
The human clutched their own hand to themself, taking half a step away. “I don’t want to stay here!” They said shrilly. Aileen laughed.
“We’re not, silly! We’ll go to the spring realm- you can sip honeyed wine and dance and-“
“I don’t want to stay in the fae realms!” They cut Aileen off.
Aileen frowned in confusion.
“Why wouldn’t you want to stay here?” She said, curiously.
“Because I’ll never be able to leave! And I’m not giving you my name either,” the tone was accusatory, “I know you trick humans with food and wine and songs, and then we lose ourselves!”
“But the human realms are full of suffering and hardship! You’ll go back and suffer age and ill health, and hunger and cold, and—“
“My family are there! My friends!! I don’t know how I got here but I’m NOT staying! I want to go home!”
Human tears weren’t really worth much in the fae realm. They sobbed for joy, and for sorrow, and in the end it was all much the same. But Aileen was so intensely confused by the idea of someone who would ever want to leave that she couldn’t help herself.
“You really want to go back?”
The human nodded.
A funny thing happens when a fae is curious about a human. Of course fae are curious, and airheaded, and wise and cruel and naive and everything in between. But if enough is invested in a human, the fae ends up a little more human. And a little more human is a little less fae, and a little less fae is a little more vulnerable to all the trials of the human world.
But she couldn’t help herself.
“I can try and help you find your way,”
The human didn’t look convinced but, well, what else could they do? So they took Aileen’s hand and they wandered.
The human was guarded but they spoke of their home, their family, their wants, their fears. Trying to shield their humanity from the blank forgetfulness that sinks into a human when they spend too much time in the fae realm. But little by little, things slipped away.
Aileen, for her part, ached for the human. She tried to keep their humanity, as they wandered caves full of glowing lichen and stepped through halls where the walls were the silver-green trunks of trees, but one by one the petals on the flower wilted and fell.
And the slow, creeping effect of the fae realms sank deep into their mind, so kindly, so softly sweeping away their memories. And a year to the day, they stood back in the realm of winter, under the never moving midwinter sun.
Aileen shivered.
“My name is Catherine,” the human whispered.
“I don’t remember mine,” Aileen replied.