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Albedo wouldn’t have noticed the girl if she hadn’t stirred when the twig cracked beneath his feet. The flowers were dense enough to hide her entire body while she slept.
He stopped upon hearing her sharp inhale and shone his flashlight in the direction of the noise and watched as she scrambled to stand up, her eyes wide.
Suspicious, and with a feeling of elation rising in his chest, he turned the flashlight this way and that, illuminating his surroundings. He caught a glimpse of a gilded gate.
The girl skittered out of the way of the light as he did so, like she was afraid of it. But Albedo didn’t care.
Climbing the mountain had been arduous and perilous, so much so that he was on the verge of giving up. After plenty of near misses and falls to his death – only to be saved by his own ingenious inventions, he was about to call this expedition a failure and go back home.
He sunk to his knees, unable to let the wash of relief keep him standing.
“I’m here... I found it... the gates to Avalon...”
The girl squeaked as if she hadn’t expected him to make any noise and suddenly clasped her hands together.
Albedo hadn’t noticed the pale light forming in her hands until it was too late, and he was blown backwards by a ferocious gust of wind.
He yelped, mere inches away from the cliffside. He wasn’t sure even his inventions would have been able to save him from that fall – he had already used his parachute a few days ago.
He looked at the girl – or at least, tried to. His flashlight had fallen from his hands from the blast of wind. But there were enough fireflies about to find her silhouette in the darkness.
“P - please,” said Albedo. His mind was turning. “I - I am a researcher. I am not here to hurt you.”
He raised his hands, trying to show he wasn’t dangerous.
“Leave,” said the girl. Her voice was clear, but quiet. “I - I do not care what you are, you mustn’t be here.”
A firefly drifted close to her face. She was frowning but she was... she was pretty. Prettier than anyone Albedo had ever seen before.
“Please. Please... I have come all of this way. Are you a fairy?” Albedo asked.
“H - Humans are not allowed here,” said the girl, ignoring his question and putting her hands together again. “I have my orders; I do not care what will happen to you.”
“W - Wait! Please!” said Albedo. He knew of magic, of the power that the Fae possessed. He knew that another blast of wind from her hands would send him tumbling down the mountain. He shuddered to think about what the newspaper headlines would say when they discovered he hadn’t returned.
The girl didn’t wait.
He barely escaped the blast of wind she sent towards him,
“Please! Just until morning! I will leave then!” he said.
The girl still kept her hands together, but there was no light emanating from her palms.
“Humans are not supposed to be here,” she repeated
“I... well, I suppose you’re right, but you see, I’m a researcher and I’ve just come to investigate the windblume flower, which only grows in Avalon... If I could enter... petition the King or the Queen for a sample, then I would leave as soon as I found one.”
The girl’s voice was distrusting. “The windblume flower is not for humankind to take.”
“My interests are purely scientific of nature.”
“The King and Queen would have your head.”
“I think you almost beat them to it,” said Albedo under his breath.
“Is this funny to you?” the girl said.
Albedo didn’t think she would have been able to hear that.
“No...” he said. “But... I’ve got a lot riding on this expedition. Hm... maybe you could go in and pick a flower for me!”
“I won’t,” said the girl.
“Why not?”
“Haven’t you humans done enough to our lands? And now you wish for a fae to pick you our sacred flower?”
Albedo cowed. “I suppose it might have been too much to ask... But for the sake of research and of bridging the gap of misunderstanding. You see, I wish to reconcile our differences. There was once a time when both Fae and humans walked together. I believe we’re not meant to be separate and our world – both of our worlds are suffering for it.”
The girl listened to him and her expression shifted.
“I’m sorry,” she said, “But I still cannot give you what you ask for.”
“Not even a petal? Or a description...?”
“I cannot,” said the girl. Was it just him, or did she sound sad about it?
Albedo frowned. He wished he could see her better. If he could, maybe he would be able to convince her otherwise.
“Then what should I do?” he asked. “I have come all this way here.”
“Leave. Wait until morning, if you must, but it is unsafe.”
Albedo felt his heart sinking. All this way, and he would return empty handed?
I’ll come up with a plan , he thought to himself. I’ve got until morning, after all.
His hands were shaking and it might have been from the exhaustion of coming all of this way here or the adrenaline of nearly falling to his death.
“ Daybreak is not too far away,” said the girl. “I will let you stay until then.”
Albedo nodded. He reached for his flashlight and the girl shied away from it.
“It won’t hurt you,” he said. “It’s technology.”
“Technology?”
“It’s like a human’s version of magic,” he said.
“I don’t like it.”
Albedo shrugged. “I didn’t like your windblast.”
“It’s too bright.”
“At least it doesn’t have the possibility of killing you.”
“I told you... I... I have my orders.”
Albedo frowned.
The girl turned her back on him, sinking back down into the flowers. She sat with her legs crossed. He could feel her eyes on him. “I protect the gate.”
“Oh,” said Albedo. “From humans?”
“From anyone deemed a threat to Avalon.”
“I’m not a threat,” said Albedo.
“Maybe not. I do not know this for sure. But it doesn’t matter, since you will be leaving in the morning.”
“I... hope to stay, for a little while at least. Not to go into Avalon, but to assess the mountain. Is that okay? Since this is still part of the human world?”
Albedo was glad he was good at thinking on the spot.
“I will decide in the morning. I am going to keep watch over the gate until you leave.”
Albedo swallowed. “Fine... where can I sleep?”
“Anywhere you want.”
“You don’t have a bed?”
“...No,” said the girl, sounding uncertain.
Did she not know what a bed was?
Albedo ignored her. A standoffish fairy was the least of his worries right now.
“Doesn’t matter. I have a tent.”
He put his flashlight in his mouth so he could open his backpack and pull his tent out. The girl might have enjoyed sleeping amongst the bugs and the dirt, but he certainly didn’t.
He tried to be as quiet as he could, but evidently, he wasn’t quiet enough.
“What are you making all of that noise for?” the girl asked, her voice tepid.
“I’m setting up my tent,” said Albedo.
“What is a... actually, nevermind.”
Albedo frowned.
He managed to put it up without any more complaint from her though, and once he had settled in and pulled his sleeping bag over himself, immersed in the darkness and his pulse settling, his brain started to come up with a plan.
A fairy was better than a windblume... maybe if he found out more about her, he wouldn’t need access to the flower at all.
Albedo had been waking up at inconsistent times ever since climbing the mountain, usually only sleeping when he couldn’t go on anymore. He looked around for the girl. She was kneeling by his tent, a finger outstretched like she was about to poke the fabric, her eyes narrowed in distrust.
“Good afternoon,” he said.
The girl squeaked, startled by his sudden appearance.
“Uh - um...”
In the daylight, he could see that her hair was tangled and overgrown, almost the same colour as the grass around her. Albedo had never seen such an unnatural colour on a person before.
He could see a dusting of pollen over her cheeks and the bare skin of her arms now. She had freckles too. Albedo hadn’t been certain if she had been wearing clothes when he came across her last night, but his sensibilities were relieved to see that she was, but it was nothing like the fashion the girls in his hometown wore. They would have been scandalised by her lack of modesty. Her entire midriff was showing, and Albedo couldn’t tell what the material was made out of, but it was brown and leathery, yet the pattern of it almost looked like bark off a tree. He had never seen such an expanse of bare leg, unless he was looking at himself in the mirror before bathing.
She didn’t seem to get much sleep since being disturbed by him in the late night if the bags underneath her eyes were to suggest anything.
“What is your name, by the way?” he asked.
“Sucrose,” she said.
He almost laughed. “Sucrose? Like the molecule?”
The girl shrugged. “It was the name I was given.”
“My name is Albedo.”
“Hm...” said the girl. “I doesn’t really suit you.”
Albedo laughed. “Do you think so?”
The girl looked startled.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“That noise you made was horrifying.”
“The noise? My laugh?”
“Laugh?” said the girl. “What is that?”
“Um... it’s a noise you make when you are amused.”
Sucrose looked even more confused. “I see,” she said, sounding like she did not really see anything at all.
“Um... it’s okay if I take a look around, right?” said Albedo. The flowers in the meadow were all ones he had recognised before. He doubted he would be able to find anything of note... except for the fairy standing behind him as he took the pretense of kneeling.
“I will be watching you as you do so,” said Sucrose.
Albedo nodded, not expecting anything less. She had stayed up all through the night since he had woken her up.
Albedo pulled out his notebook. Every movement of his seemed to keep Sucrose on the defensive. He wondered what stories she had been told about humans to think that everything he did might be a possible attack.
Albedo glanced back at her. “You know... I thought fairies had wings.”
He thought he would have been able to see them in the morning, but there was nothing like that on her back.
“I - Not all of them do,” said Sucrose.
Albedo frowned. “Okay.”
She said it so quickly it was easy to see she was hiding something. Albedo wanted to know more, but he knew that the answers wouldn’t come easily.
He walked closer to the gate, so close that Sucrose put her hand on his shoulder like a warning.
Albedo turned, about to tell her he wasn’t going to attempt to go in, but then his throat dried up. She was so close. Her eyes – an amber colour Albedo had never seen on a human before – could have been made out of liquid could for the way they shimmered.
“Fascinating,” he said before he could stop himself.
Sucrose blinked and pulled away slightly. Her brows shifted, confused.
“W - what is?” she asked.
Albedo cleared his throat. “Y - your... uh... your eyes aren’t like any I’ve seen before.”
“My eyes?” asked Sucrose. “What do they look like?”
“You... don’t know?” asked Albedo.
“Am I supposed to?”
“Most people know what they look like.”
“Well... I know my hair is green?” said Sucrose, like she was uncertain of that too.
“Yes. It is green. Do many fairies have green hair?”
“I... I think so.”
“You think so?”
“I haven’t seen many fairies in my life.”
“Oh? But surely you haven't been alone your whole life. Who brings you your food?”
“Food? I eat whatever is around me.”
“Like the... flowers?”
“I especially like those ones over there. The nectar is very sweet.”
Sucrose pointed towards a cluster of flowers. Albedo went towards them. He had wondered what that cloying smell was. He thought it was Sucrose, at first.
“Hm... maybe the chlorophyll in the plants is what makes your hair green. I wonder what would happen if you ate only strawberries.”
“What is a strawberry?”
Albedo blinked. How could someone not know what a strawberry was?
“It’s a fruit. A berry. Do you not have those?”
“Maybe... I don’t know. I don’t know the words for a lot of things.”
Albedo frowned. “Are fairies educated?”
“I don’t know.”
“Have you ever read a book before?”
“I don’t know what that is.”
Albedo frowned. “You’ve never gone into Avalon?”
“It’s the fate of the guardian of the gate,” she said it so matter-of-factly, there was almost no room to be surprised.
“You’ve been alone here your entire life? No one has brought you books, food... or -?” a friend?
“I still don’t know what a book is,” said Sucrose.
“They are like stories, or... it can hold information in them. They usually have the ability to teach you something new.”
“Hm... I have stories... the animals and the plants teach me new things every day. Sometimes I will see a beetle and I will ask it if it has won any fights lately... or sometimes I will see an eagle swoop down and I think about the prey and all the family it will never see again, but that one kind of makes me feel sad so I try not to think about it too much.”
“You’ve got a good imagination,” Albedo said. At her look of confusion, he elaborated. “An imagination is... it’s kind of like making up things that don’t really exist. Like stories in your head.”
“Do you have a good imagination?” Sucrose asked.
“Not that good,” said Albedo. “I wish I did, though. A lifetime of research and science has left me a little too involved in the reality of things. Art though, has been a great reprieve of that for me.”
Sucrose seemed satisfied by him not going even further towards the gate. She stepped back a little bit and was silent for a while.
Then she spoke, her words coming out uncertain. “I’d like to know more about all of those things,” said Sucrose. “Science... art.”
Albedo smiled despite the concern he felt for her. She wondered how long she had spent in this meadow. It seemed her entire life.
“Science is finding out about the world we live in, the way things work, how we exist. I came here because magic is one of the areas that humans know nothing about. Being cut off from the rest of the world, I want to find out about it. Art can encompass many things... music, painting, novels or writing... but mostly it’s a person’s most inner feelings, their ideas, their identities. It's what makes a human, human.”
“Both of those things sound amazing...” said Sucrose, her eyes wide. “I... I never knew that humans could do so much.”
“If I knew you would be here, I would have brought you back some materials – actually – maybe this will do. I wrote down some things on my way here. A map, too.”
Albedo returned to his tent and opened his bag and took out his notebook and a map he had drawn of the Avalon Mountain.
He opened his notebook and showed Sucrose.
“This is my planning, how I made my inventions, all the risks that would involve my ascent to Avalon. I’ve also written about my findings up the mountain. It’s a like a journal.”
Sucrose turned the pages like she was afraid to even be holding it.
She paused at one of the drawings he made. “How do you do this?”
“It’s a drawing. It’s art, like I explained before. I drew all the flowers that were native to the mountain. There are more here. On this page too.”
“And what are all of these?” Sucrose asked, putting a finger on all the words he had written about his journey here.
“Oh. Those are words. Have you learned a different way of writing in Avalon?”
“No. I don’t think so,” said Sucrose.
“Oh... maybe you never learned.” He didn’t know why he didn’t consider it, but it made sense. “Maybe I could teach you.”
Sucrose watched him with her eyes wide. He motioned with his hand for Sucrose to sit beside him as he took the notepad out of her hands and opened it to a blank page, writing the letter ‘A’.
Sucrose stared at the notepad. She reached for his pencil and looked at it so closely he was overcome with the urge to gently pull it away from her lest she poke her eye out with it.
“It’s got lead in it. It’s why I can write and draw in here. See?”
Albedo flipped the notepad onto the previous page where it was filled with sketches of the flowers he had encountered on the ascent up the mountain.
Sucrose gasped. “Those flowers -!”
“They’re called violetgrass,” said Albedo.
“I’ve never seen them before,” said Sucrose.
“They grow on the side of the mountain,” said Albedo. “... You’ve... never attempted to leave, have you?”
“I mustn’t leave. If I do, there will be no one here who can protect Avalon.”
“But you’ve never needed to before,” said Albedo. “No one can even come past here.”
“If you came this far, then there will be others, soon too.”
Albedo couldn’t argue with that. His inventions worked, now anyone could scale the tallest mountain. Avalon wouldn’t remain unchartered for long. He wondered what kind of ability Sucrose had that would be able to fend everyone off from the world of the Fae.
Still, there was a part of him that felt sad for her. He couldn’t imagine what it was like to stay in one place for his entire life, to have no education, to know nothing about the world. He wanted to show her.
He looked away from her, surveying the meadow that she had existed all of her life in, then back at her. She was as beautiful as the flowers that surrounded her. This must have been the otherworldly beauty that had been spoken of so much in the old literature he read about the Fae.
And he had only come here so he could research Avalon. Understanding what one couldn’t understand was the first step to reconciliation between the humans and the Fae, and that was what science was for.
Albedo turned the page back. He explained the letter ‘A’, the sound it made. Words that started with A. Apple. Ankles. Albedo. He told her to keep his notebook. Once she learned how to read and he said a word she didn’t know, she could write it down to remember for another time.
“Am I the first person you’ve ever seen?”
He didn’t ask if he was the first human. If no fae came to visit her either, she would have been alone her entire life.
“Yes,” she said.
“Do you know who your parents are?”
“No. Do you know yours? You know, a bird once laid her nest here and not long after there were a lot of baby birds flying around the meadow.”
“I know my mother,” said Albedo. “And really? What kind of bird was it?”
Sucrose shrugged. “I don’t know. What is your mother like?”
“She’s a scientist like me,” he said. “She’s a genius. Smartest person you’ll ever meet.”
“Is she nice?”
The hand holding the pencil stilled. Albedo pondered the question for a moment. “She wasn’t nice in the way most people should be nice.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Don’t worry about it,” said Albedo. “It doesn’t matter these days anyway.”
Sucrose frowned. She brushed her hair towards the back of her neck. Her hair was so long. Albedo was overcome with the urge to brush it. She had even decorated it with flowers.
He could see the barest dusting of pollen on her cheeks.
“Are you okay with being here?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Being alone, knowing no one. Having no one.”
“Am I supposed to have someone?” she asked.
“I - well... I suppose not. Most people do though. A friend, or a lover. Someone who you can share things with, someone who can try to understand you.”
“Do you have someone like that?” asked Sucrose.
Albedo was at a loss for words. Not a single name came up for him. “No... no, I don’t think I do.”
“I think I do. When the birds were born, I helped them learn how to fly. I understood their world and they understood mine, because they never returned, knowing that I have to be here by myself. I only have the flowers as my friends, and even then, when it starts to snow, they wilt and I am left alone again. Except for the -”
“The what?”
Sucrose shook her head. “Nothing.”
“What is it?”
Sucrose looked at him. Her knees were so close to his. Even her leg hair was green.
She turned her back to him.
Albedo was confused at first, then he saw the pale ripples along the length of her back. The crevices and the hollowness of the scars.
“What happened to you?” Albedo asked. He reached his hand up and traced a line down the scar. Her back tensed and she drew away from him. He put his hand back down.
“I’m a winter fairy,” she said. “My wings only bloom in the winter.”
“ Oh...,” said Albedo. “Is that how it works?”
“I’m rare,” said Sucrose. “There aren’t any fairies born in winter. Only those destined to be the guardian of Avalon are winterborn. Regular fairies have their wings all year round.”
“And because of that, you’re destined to be alone?”
“I protect the fae,” said Sucrose. “Because of my birth, I am powerful. It’s why I am outside and they are in, because I protect the fae from threats. It was the last winterborn fae who was strong enough to cast this mountain and send the last of our remaining race to safety.”
“Is that true?” asked Albedo.
“She is buried here,” said Sucrose. She stood up and Albedo couldn’t help but take another glance at her back before following her.
“The glaze lillies are where she is buried,” said Sucrose. “I dreamed about her when I was young. She taught me about my duties.”
“And that’s how you know what you’re meant to do?”
Sucrose nodded. She opened her mouth, then hesitated, worried. “Are you going to tell people about me?” she asked.
"I... I don’t know,” he said. “My research...”
Sucrose turned away. “You only came here for the windblume flower, not anything else, right?”
“I came here to study magic,” said Albedo. “But I might have found something better.”
Sucrose glanced at him, confused at first.
Albedo reached out and brushed her hair back. She swallowed, her eyes darting from his eyes to his lips then back again.
He felt something behind the mess of hair and gently parted her hair and watched as her ears came to view. His mouth parted slightly.
“How fascinating,” he said.
Her ears twitched. Albedo couldn’t tell what kind of animal they might have belonged to, but his fingers traced the shape of them.
“I won’t tell anyone about you,” he said and pulled his hand away from her. “I don’t want to make the fae angry – or you. But... I do want to reconcile things between us. I want the fae to walk together with humans again.”
“Maybe that’s not something that can be fixed the way you want it to be,” said Sucrose. “Something that can’t be fixed with your research. But... maybe it can be fixed in another way. I am... curious about your world, about your... technology. About your books and your science and your art. I... I do not know if I can leave this place but... I desire it. I desire the knowledge you’ve shown me since I’ve met you.”
“It’s a long time to live without anything like that,” said Albedo. “Perhaps I could come back. I could bring you thinks and I could stay for the winter, and you could show me what your wings are like, too.”
“I think I would like that,” said Sucrose. She pulled her knees up, wrapping her hands around her knees, her head tilted towards Albedo. “Maybe I could learn what it’s like to have a friend, too.”
Albedo gave her a gentle smile. “Me too.”