Ailie walked slowly through the fog. She had to get water from the well; the men had already left for the fields, and it was washing day. The children were still sleeping; or at least the little ones were. The older ones had to help their mothers clean, or their fathers farm.
The village was tiny, barely big enough to be seen on a map. Not that they got many with maps in this region; not many roads crossed this part of Scotland. This was the extreme Highlands, and life up here was lived as it had been for centuries.
She was the eldest at nineteen; not quite a woman yet, but no longer a girl. Her mother despaired of ever finding her a man- as every good lass needed- as there were no other boys her age around. The next village was miles away, and the roads, as already mentioned, were not good.
The well was situated quite a way away from the village, but that was fine normally. But recently the men had gotten to talking; some had noticed some crops missing, and something was scaring the goats. The woman didn't talk around the girls, but Ailie had overheard her mother talking to one of the men, who had said he had seen something near the old faere dun.
It was near the well, they said. And the faeries had been perfectly content for as long as the people of the village could remember, but recently there had been a whole spate of odd going ons around the area. Not just the cattle; the milk was going off, within days of the cows being milked. The Laird's Cairn, up to the north, had been showing signs. Ailie didn't know what that meant; the men never said, their faces grey. She had never seen the cairn; "It isna fur th' lassis", her father said, smiling down at her, when she was younger. But now, the nights were getting longer, and the weather worse. There wasn't normally enough real snow up here to cover the ground, but that was only due to the wind. The air was icy cold as it swept off the moors, and if the Ailie listened carefully , she could hear the faeries singing on the wind.
It was early for her to be walking out, but she had used the last of the water to make her family some tea last night, before they went to sleep. Washing day meant that everyone would be needing water, and if she was going to get any she had best get there early.
She could see the dun from here, just off to the left as she stopped at the well. The grass twinkled merrily in the fog. It was a tiny little hill, not even that really; just grass on a slight rise, surrounded by taller hills, flowing and rolling on as the highlands do. But there was something strange, something wonderful about the dun; the barrenness of the moors didn't touch it, the plants on it thriving, the heather always in bloom. It drew the eye, but Ailie couldn't have said why.
She took her bucket, and lowered it down the well slowly. The well was sometimes high, and they had gotten a significant amount of rain recently- which was saying something.
Ailie found herself staring at the dun. She thought she could see something moving in the grass. She squinted, trying to make it out.
It was a woman. Her hair was long, far, far past her waist had she been standing, but she lay full on the ground. Her skin was translucent, stunning in its paleness, and she was naked. Ailie found herself blushing.
The woman was lying on her back, but her legs were spread. She clutched at the air over her, and arched her back. Ailie stiffened; she had seen a couple doing this in the village, through the window. This woman was making love to a person she could not see.
