Rose and Gniff picked their way along the overgrown trail toward the small, bushy hill. The air grew colder and windy as they walked. Maples showed the silver-green undersides of their leaves in the gusts. When the two heard a distant metallic rattle they turned back toward the house. Rain drummed on the metal roof of the woodshed to announce its advance through the refuge. Gniff put her hand around Rose's thigh and snuggled against her.
"It's going to be cold," said Gniff.
"I'll keep you warm, sweetness," said Rose. She wrapped her shawl around Gniff's shoulders. The gnome responded by kissing the highest place she could reach on Rose, which happened to be her hip. The two quickened their pace, but minutes later the raindrops were falling around them. Gniff found shelter under the lowest limbs of a pine tree, but Rose preferred to stand out in the downpour. She turned her face up and let the rain wash her. Each drop felt like freedom after twenty years trapped inside the roots of her rosebush in a pot.
"I wish I was as strong as you are," said Gniff.
"Have you forgotten our dalliances of the past?" said Rose.
"I haven't forgotten. It's just been so long that I don't know if I could do that again," said the gnome.
Rose reached out to her. "Come out. It's not so bad."
---
Gniff looked into Rose's bright blue eyes. They were just as bright as they were the last time they shared a downpour twenty years earlier. The seductive magic that swirled around Rose was focused on her. The intensity of it after twenty years of loneliness felt like a warm current drawing her in.
Gniff came out from under the tree and walked slowly toward Rose. Then she stopped. The cold rain didn't chill her into a coma. The raindrops were still cold, but in a different way than they usually were. Each one was a tiny sensual surprise. Gniff untied her ragged corset and threw it aside. The cold fingers of the rain drummed over her breasts. Rose's shawl clung to her shoulders. She took it off and let the rain wash her shoulders. Gniff's nipples hardened like dark pebbles. The food stains on her chest liquefied and ran in thin streaks of barbecue sauce and mustard down her belly. Gniff untied her skirt and let it fall from around her broad hips and big ass.
"I know I have let myself go," said Gniff, suddenly remembering that she was noticeably fatter than the last time the two met.
"Time hasn't been the kindest to either of us," said Rose.
Gniff embraced Rose. The soft skin of her thighs felt good on Gniff's cheeks. She kissed Rose's crotch. Her sparse patch of silver pubic hair tickled Gniffs lips. Gniff held Rose's butt still and inhaled the rainwater-muted scent of her cunt.
Gniff felt Rose's fingers in her hair. The nymph was working her magic. She felt the loneliness of the past twenty years slowly rise to the surface of her mind. All the days spent barely holding it together and all the nights spent alone came rushing into her awareness. Gniff hiccuped and tried to hold back tears. Rose held her still and knelt so she could look into the gnome's eyes.
"Don't hold back. I'm not her. You don't have to put on a face for me."
"I'll be fine," said Gniff.
"You will be, but you have to heal first," said Rose.
"I don't want Sigra to see. I don't want to let her know she can get to me."
"She won't dare look. Even if she calls you while in flagrante with Mac, she won't have a word against you."
"I wish I was as carefree with my reputation as you are, but I'm not as pretty. I don't have the power you do to make men want me. Since Seamus died I'm just a human's leftovers. I'm supposed to be getting over him, and you."
"You aren't leftovers. You're the closest to a wife that he had."
"Had. I was so lonely for so long."
"Let the tears flow," said Rose. Gniff held Rose tight against her soft breasts and gave up trying to hold back. She put her face into Rose's neck and sobbed uncontrollably.
---
Fifi didn't know how the voices knew her, but they did. They whispered in their high-pitched voices about her, as if she were the subject of their conversation rather than a participant.
"She's fat."
"And short."
"And a voyeur. Who does that?"
"Creepers, that's who."
"She's filthy."
"The elf would make a better match for the human."
"Or the nymph."
"Or even the diamond."
"Go away!" Fifi commanded them, but her voice never left her mouth. Instead, it was absorbed by the big black...thing. Or lack of thing. It was as if a giant nothing had wedged itself between her mind and everything else. The individual nothings responded with shrill mocking laughter. Then they changed to mocking parodies of Fifi's own voice, exaggerating her slight drawl into a drawn-out whine.
"Ooh, look at me, all sticky with human cum, hope it makes up for the fact that no men of my own kind want me."
"Ha, it won't."
Then there was a break in the isolation. Fifi could hear Mac and Tia.
"You really love her," said Tia.
"Yes. Even though she is a mess and I have been in one jam after another since I met her, she is somehow easy to love. And now she's messed up because of me." said Mac.
Then something shifted among the multitude of nothing voices and the rest of the conversation was cut off. She could still hear the voices away in the distance talking about her, but without the same confidence as before. In a moment they returned.
"You should see what he's doing with the elf," said a voice close to Fifi's ear.
"She's so much prettier than you, and a better kisser. You just slobber on him," said one in her other ear.
Then the two laughed in her ears. Fifi tried her best to not let it get to her. She knew she didn't have much of a chance to keep Mac for herself, but she still hated them rubbing it in. Having to share with somebody she could never compete against was worse. Tia was pretty, thin, tall, with perfect hair, while Fifi was chubby with hairy ears and claws like an animal.
"That elderly nymph is a better lay. I bet the human will be so busy with her and the elf that you end up sleeping alone."
Suddenly the noise of the background voices decreased to a whisper.
---
Gniff's nose ran as she held onto Rose. Her tears and snot mixed with the rain and ran between their bodies. She began to feel better bit by bit as her sadness was pulled from deep inside her. A lump began to form in her throat.
---
Rose held Gniff and gently pulled at the gnome's spirit. Her trauma was tied up around everything in a tangled mess. Rose untied what she could without damaging her lover more. As she worked each tentacle of pain free from the surrounding spirit she could feel comfort flow through herself and into the pain's former place. It still hurt Gniff. She had been suppressing her pain for so long that it was hard to find the seam where gnome ended and pain began. Rose worked until the fat boulder in her arms showed signs of fatigue, then she concluded by wrapping the separated pain up into a tight ball and letting it harden.
She turned Gniffs head to the side and let her vomit a marble-sized black gem into the grass. Gniff clung to her for support. Rose held Gniff but kept an eye on the little black gem. Soon Fizzy would come to collect it. But Rose wasn't sure she wanted Fizzy to have it. Gniff had suffered enough without Fizzy mocking her like a pain connoisseur.
Rose knelt and picked up the rain-washed gem. She hated the next part, but she was willing to go through it for Gniff. Rose squeezed the gem in her fist. The faceted edges cut into her palm as if to resist its fate. Then the gem imploded with a pop and Gniff's pain passed through Rose's mind in an excruciating instant, then vanished. Rose steadied herself and waited a moment. Soon she felt the tingle of magic flowing into her, but stronger than the times she had entrusted the pain gems to Fizzy. She looked at her hand and could almost see the wrinkles disappearing from her bony fingers. A stray lock of her hair shone silver. In front of her, Gniff looked like a weight had been thrown off her. The gnome's eyes didn't look as defeated as earlier.
"You look better", said Rose.
"And you look younger", said Gniff
They were interrupted by a pained scream from the direction of the hill.
"It's Mac," said Rose. She let go and ran toward the hill. Gniff snatched up her soaked clothes and ran after Rose. Rose felt the distant scream more than she heard it. The pain hit her like a wave, and the trough behind it pulled at her spirit. She turned toward Seamus' grave.
"Seamus? Mac?" Rose meant to shout, but it came out as a whisper. She knew it was Mac, but the last time she felt pain like that it led her to Seamus, a long time ago. The two were so similar but at the same time so different. She felt Gniff squeeze her hand.
"We need to help him," said Gniff.
The two hurried along the trail. Rose outpaced Gniff easily but was confident that the little Gnome would catch up. She felt Gniff's desire and hope even at a distance.
---
Cuttystool lost her balance and staggered as the macrame cloak sapped her strength. Dunmarfor pulled her out the back door and down the weathered steps to the dirt. They stood in uncomfortable silence for a time. Dunmarfor seemed to be calculating something.
"I guess you regret getting involved with that leprechaun," said Dunmarfor.
"An thoo guess wrong, as usual," retorted Cuttystool.
