The Witch's Wish

"Please, don't make that wish!" Vellargo cried.

Bianca looked up from the warm, glowing sphere of the fallen star to see the elf who had pined for her these many years running towards the garden outside her cottage amid the chaotic gleams of fireflies.

"Sorriso worked hard to fetch it," she remarked, glancing at the panting elf hound at her side. The sleek creature had been a gift from Vellargo, and Bianca had trained it to fetch falling stars using an enticing blend of herbs and rabbit bones.

The stained teapot and dirty cups were on the garden table, as they had been on many an evening, and Vellargo had always been welcome for tea here, but now his usually serene elven features betrayed his anxiety and perhaps even desperation as he leapt over the garden gate.

Bianca had already made three wishes on falling stars over the last few years. The first had been that her daughter would find a place where she could be happy, whether it was among elves or humans, it didn’t matter. The second was for a female bear that Bianca particularly liked, a mother bear who had given birth to two cubs that year, never to be killed by hunters. And so even the best crossbowmen in the region wondered if their bolts were cursed, or if the bear was actually an elf playing tricks on them.

The third was for her husband, whom she still loved, to come back so they could try to live together again. They had both agreed long ago that even though the marriage had begun to feel stale and constricting, perhaps after many years they could live together once more.

But this wish... this was for Vellargo. With this wish, she meant to put an end to his suffering.

***

Vellargo tried to compose himself, which was usually easy for his kind, but he felt that this could be a life-changing moment. The hound had launched an image into his mind about a fallen star, a wish, something that concerned him...

The human he had fallen in love with bounced the star in one hand, as if it were a toy. The elf hound’s cool breath must have subdued the heat of the fiery orb enough for a human hand to touch it.

“Bianca, think about what you’re doing. That wish could destroy me,” he pleaded.

“How do you know what I was going to wish?” the woman asked suspiciously.

Vellargo felt a subtle smile creeping over his face, and he inadvertently looked at the hound. Bianca looked at it in turn. Its big, brown eyes pleaded doe-like innocence, but one front leg was raised and bent as if the creature felt self-conscious.

“Ah, so there is a spy in my household,” Bianca pronounced, though she smiled.

“Not really a spy. Sorriso can’t read your thoughts, but he can sense your moods, sometimes even see flashes of a certain image if your mind is very focused on it.”

He had given her the hound so that she and Julia would never lack for fresh game, even though he knew Bianca was not a helpless damsel, as she had told him many times.

It was by choice that she became a hermit, living alone with only her daughter in the forest. The people of her village had looked down on her for separating from her husband, and Bianca was too proud to continue living among them. So she built a new home here, on the edge of the elf kingdom, among the fragrant moon flowers and apple trees.

The villagers thought of her as sinful and poor and old, being in her fourties, but to Vellargo, the few lines on her forehead and at the corners of her mouth only highlighted her charm. The elves of his kingdom knew she had powerful magic and held her in high regard because she cared for the forest, even if it was in a haphazard sort of way.

The ribbons of many clashing colors in her hair somehow suited her. The dress that she wore, ragged at the hem and patched with different star-shaped pieces of linen, made her seem even more apt to command the stars.

“So, you don’t want to find a new love interest?” she asked, the light of the fireflies and the stars dancing in her dark eyes.

“Not like this,” he said, finally gaining some composure. “If I were a human, perhaps meeting someone new and falling in love with them would cause my memories of another love to fade and lose their poignance. But for an elf, the memories could live on, suspended in all their vivid details, just as fresh as... as the day I met you. Would you subject me to such eternal torment?”

“I’m a simple woman, and your complicated words only confuse me,” she said, teasing slightly.

“I think you like my complicated words,” he replied. “But... I will not be back to bother you anymore.”

He saw the sadness in her eyes.

“Vellargo, if I hadn’t met my husband first...”

“I know, a dashing elf like myself is... irresistible.” He wanted to go on joking, but the pain in his heart flared up and silenced him.

“Vellargo, are you all right?”

He made an effort to smile. “I know your wish was meant well, but for what ails me, there is no cure.”

“Don’t say that!” she cried out, startling the hound, which leapt up on its powerful hind legs. Bianca petted its head to soothe it. “There, there, we will find a way.”

“It’s not up to you to save me,” Vellargo said, his pride flaring up along with his grief.

“I know, but this wish is for you,” she said, shaking her finger at him as if reprimanding a child, even though he was scores of years older than her. “I will just need to change it...”

Vellargo sighed, knowing that she was too stubborn to turn away from her purpose. “What would you wish for me, wild woman of the woods?”

“That’s it,” she whispered, “the woods...”

“What are you talking about now?” Vellargo asked wearily, leaning back on the garden fence as he often did in a graceful pose with one leg slanted behind him.

“I have the perfect wish for you,” Bianca said, her face lit up with an inner glow. “I wish for you to love the forest the way I love it. Not the way you elves love everything in the forest equally. I want you to love a certain glade where moths dance in the moonlight, I want you to stop and help an otter that has injured its leg, I want you to save a bird’s eggs from being eaten by a squirrel.”

Vellargo’s eyebrows went up in an uncharacteristically surprised expression. “You want me to be partial?”

“And more than that, I even want you to have a favourite season. Maybe you’ll love summer more than the others because summer is easy to love. But maybe, like me, you’ll love autumn in all its lush and destructive madness. Yes, that’s my wish.”

The star in her hands glowed brighter, illuminating the apple trees, the cottage, and the table with its perpetually dirty tea set... then imploded into the evening air, leaving only the subtle scent of magic.

“You are truly unreasonable,” Vellargo said, shaking his head. “And that is why I’ll never forget you. I must go...”

Bianca looked up at him, her expression of elation replaced with wistfulness. She probably knew they would never see each other again.

As he walked away from her for the last time, he wondered which forest glade would become his favourite, and whether it would be the same one as hers. Perhaps he could see the forest through her eyes, not excatly like he could see glimpses of her life through the eyes of the elf hound, but in a more subtle way. Her shadow would always be slipping away from him, but perhaps that was meant to be.

He opened the garden gate to leave, then turned around. “Thank you,” he said. “I wonder if spring will be the season for me.”