A trickle of sweat made its way down my back. The sun was warm on my face as I closed my eyes and enjoyed the feeling.
My office was always cold.... Summer, Winter, it didn't matter. They liked it artificially false in there. I craved the warmth and regeneration of the Sun. Every day I could, I headed to the park down the street from my house to hike through the woods and recharge myself.
Today was one of the most beautiful I could remember. This was the first day of the year it had reached 80. Of course that happened a couple hours ago, while the boss was boring me to death in his weekly staff meeting. It was still glorious in the mid 70's as I left my house. I wasn't complaining! I was glad I'd thrown on shorts, though!
I had found my favorite little clearing a good ten minutes off the red diamond trail. Nobody ever came here. It was a circle between trees with a clearing filled with wildflowers and grasses. I found that the sun shone onto this clearing 365 days a year. There was a stream that ran near one edge of the clearing.
The stream was ankle deep in most places, but right before it swept back into the trees, there was a deep pool. It was waist deep on the far side, about ten feet wide. The sun always kept the water warm when it was above 70 outside. The stream itself ran through a few sunny spots just upstream as well.
I decided I needed to put my feet in the water today.... Strode over, plopped down beside the little babbling stream, and yanked off my socks and shoes. I dangled my feet over the little bank at the top of the pool and laid back, staring up at the clouds.
I woke a bit later.... I wasn't sure how long it had been. My phone didn't get any reception here, but the time read 4:45. I should probably be heading back before the sun dipped down and it got too dark.
I sat up, and realized my feet were still in the stream. I pulled them out all pruny and chuckled at myself. I turned to reach for my shoes and saw a quick movement in the tree line just to my left.
I could still see just a sliver of light colored something behind a tree. Was that skin?
"Hello?" I called out gently. "No need to hide from me."
Not sure why I felt the need to reassure someone who had been spying on me? I thought and waited.... And waited.
When I felt they weren't going to show themselves, but were clearly not a threat, I pulled my shoes and socks over, and began putting them on.
I'd gotten one sock on when I caught more movement out of the corner of my eye and looked up.
Whoever it was had moved closer. Quickly, and relatively quietly. They were now behind a tree about six or seven feet away. I could see blond hair tips just on one side. There was a slight breeze that was blowing whoever's long, almost silver, blond hair around and giving them away.
"Okay," I chuckled, "That's close enough. I see your hair"
"Oh blither" I heard a cute little voice.
"I really won't hurt you." I said.
And, I waited a little more.
Slowly, from the opposite side of the tree, came the crown of a head, covered in beautiful silvery blond hair. Then her ears appeared. They were pointy, and slender.... They poked out, away from her head at an angle, like an elf's. They were big, but looked pretty on her.
