It had finally warmed up. Winter’s tail had hung on with a tenacious grip all through April, and only finally surrendered to spring two weeks into May. Under normal circumstances, the odd weather would have gotten quite a bit of play in the news. It was barely a blip on the radar with a pandemic and a worldwide lock-down taking up every second.

Stephanie had been awake for about a half hour, and much like winter, had only surrendered to the day when she couldn’t force herself back to sleep. She peeled back the covers from her nude body, slipped out of bed, and resigned herself to another day of shelter in place.

When she opened her drawer, she sighed as she looked down at the single pair of comfortable, well-fitting, pink panties that remained amidst all the others. She had exactly eight remaining, and a week into lock-down, one had developed a slight tear just below the waistband. It didn’t diminish their comfort, but every time she touched it, the thought of it irritated her. That tiny rip felt like a betrayal by one of the few comforts she had in her isolation.

She momentarily considered opting for an only slightly less comfortable pair, but shook her head and pulled the folded cotton square out of the drawer. The time would come when that rip would open enough to warrant discarding them, but it wasn’t today.

When she unfolded them, her brow furrowed. There was no rip. She must have somehow worn the ripped pair earlier in the week without noticing. As impossible as that seemed, it was the only reasonable explanation. Buoyed by the small gift, she slipped them on, brushed her teeth, golden blonde hair, and then finished dressing for the day.

After putting a load of laundry in the washer, she picked up her tablet and headed for the back door. Ever since her job had been deemed nonessential, she was a full time self-published fantasy/romance author. The money she made was negligible, but at least it was something to supplement her state unemployment once the federal stimulus expired. She didn’t anticipate going back to work any time soon.

She knew she was fortunate as she opened the back door to a beautiful, warm, spring morning. Her uncle owned the house where she lived, so she didn’t have to worry about an eviction for unpaid rent. She was reasonably secure, where so many weren’t. It didn’t stop the nagging feeling that writing felt like a job now, rather than a welcome diversion. The bright sunlight and musical tinkling of her fairy-themed wind chime weren’t enough to lessen that feeling of drudgery.

Nevertheless, she sat down, adjusted the chair so there was no glare on her screen, and started to write.

Fifteen minutes and dozens of deleted lines later, she sat the tablet in her lap face down and dropped her head into her hand. She simply couldn’t conjure up the once familiar, magical feeling within herself. Without that, her words on the page felt empty. She didn’t even bother thinking about opening one of her romance manuscripts, because that magic was even more dead within her.

One too many horrible dates and failed relationships had put her off from even trying. Despite that, she’d taken a few tentative steps down the road anyway with her new coworker Macy. Macy was openly bisexual, and Stephanie had felt an almost instant kinship - and attraction - to the pretty brunette. Stephanie had harbored feelings of same sex attraction for as long as she understood what attraction was, but she’d never acted upon it.

They had started trading mildly flirtatious looks and conversation just before the pandemic hit, and the restaurant closed down. It felt like the universe once again teasing her, and then snatching away any chance of romance. The two still sent texts to each other once in a while, but without the immediate, daily interaction, Stephanie hesitated. Over the weeks of isolation, she began to wonder if she’d misinterpreted the signs from Macy she had thought were attraction, and couldn’t bring herself to take a risk.

Stephanie stood, sat her tablet down in the chair, and then walked out into the back yard. She only kept a small section of it mowed, letting nature and the small woodlet behind the house take over everywhere else. The grass was flush with moisture, and the loam soft beneath her bare feet. Though there was plenty of natural inspiration along the way, she had a specific destination in mind.

In the shade of a large pecan tree, several mushrooms had sprouted the previous week. She assumed they were morels from the deeply ridged caps, but they were an unusual pink color. They formed a circle about a foot and a half across, and had immediately put Stephanie in mind of a fairy circle. Discovering them had briefly reawakened the magic within her, allowing her to start the story she’d just been struggling with on her tablet. She had even recited an old poem she’d read that was supposed to open the pathway to the fairy world. The childlike joy that had washed over her that day was what she was hoping to recapture.

It wasn’t working.

The long, seemingly unending days that she could barely keep track of were crushing her spirit. She stared down at the ring that she’d found so full of magic the week before and sighed. Unable to find her muse, she knew that she was only going to grow even more stir-crazy as the days of quarantine dragged on and on.

Stephanie sneezed and stepped back when something tickled her nose. She noticed an odd sparkling in the air, as though someone was raining down glitter upon her. When she looked up into the tree, she couldn’t believe her eyes. Someone was sprinkling her with glitter. That someone was a willowy, female figure only six inches tall.

A giggle sounded from near the ground, and Stephanie looked down to see there were two more of the tiny creatures there. Both of the miniature women waved up to her. A moment later, the third stepped out of a root as though it were nothing more than a bank of fog, and joined the pair there. They were all dressed in brown dresses of an archaic style, and wearing curly-toed shoes of the same hue. Each had curly, brunette hair done up in whimsical styles.

“Hello. I’m Prinna,” the one in the middle said. The voice was as much in Stephanie’s head as it was audible.

“I’m Fern,” said another.

“I’m Misha,” said the one who had been raining glitter.

“Hi, I’m Stephanie,” she said as she knelt down to see them better. She knew she should have been on the verge of panic from the supernatural encounter and thought, Why am I not freaking out right now?

“The fairy dust,” Prinna answered the unspoken question. “We borrowed some so you could see us. It also takes away fear.”

Stephanie looked over the three miniature women, and felt a stirring within her. The three were beautiful, with curves that were enhanced as much as they were hidden by the clothing they wore. The dresses had to be made of something like silk to cling to the creatures the way they did.

The longer she looked at them, the less their tiny size seemed to matter. She could see smaller details, almost as though they were full-sized or she had telescopic vision. Much like their voices, this seemed to be in her head, rather than an enhancement of her normal senses. Prinna was particularly attractive, because her pixie-like features very much reminded Stephanie of Macy.

“What are you?” she asked, and then immediately blushed. Apparently removing fear also removed fear of asking a rude question.

Prinna giggled. “Humans call us brownies. We help nice people like you. You let nature return here, and we are grateful. It allows us to visit your world through the fairy ring.”

“It actually is a fairy ring,” Stephanie said in a voice tinged with wonder.

Prinna nodded. “You accepted its magic, and unsealed it with the old words.”

“The old words? You mean that rhyming poem? That’s real magic?”

“Mmm hmm,” Prinna answered. “The portals to your world are so few now. We have missed visiting and helping.”

“Helping with what?” Stephanie asked. Then a thought occurred to her. “Did you fix my panties?”

All three brownies nodded and giggled in response. “We stitched them with fairy silk.”

“And found some things you’d misplaced,” Fern added.

Misha chimed in, “And fixed the threshold on the back door.”

It all made sense as the brownies revealed the aid they provided. They were all little things, but little things that added up to make her life just a tiny bit better over the last week.

“There’s something else we’d like to help you with,” Prinna said.

The other two brownies giggled.

Prinna continued, “Unburdened by fear, you can be who you are.”

With that, Prinna grasped the hem of her dress and tugged it upward to wriggle out of it. The other two brownies followed suit. Their every move was so graceful that it would have made a ballet dancer jealous.

In her psychically enhanced vision, Stephanie could see every detail. The three tiny women’s breasts were small, but perfectly shaped and firm. The globes looked far larger than they were on the brownies’ slight frames. No navels graced their flat stomachs, and not a single hair adorned their mounds. Their legs were long, and beautiful. Their brown eyes were filled with a mingling of desire and joy.

For the first time in her life, Stephanie welcomed her attraction without fear, shame, or inhibition.

Prinna stepped forward, looking up into Stephanie’s eyes and asked, “Do you wish to feel what you’ve longed for in the silence of your heart?”

The answer emerged in a husky whisper, “Yes.”

Misha giggled, turned around, and bent over to reveal an exquisite little dimpled bottom. The brownie reached into a pocket of her dress, and withdrew it holding a fistful of sparkling glitter. She tossed it into the air with a giggle and a flourish. The twinkling fairy dust settled on Prinna, who sank to her knees.

A moment later, Stephanie gasped as the brownie grew from the touch of the magic, until she was looking Prinna in her incredible brown eyes. Those eyes were filled with unfettered desire - until they drifted closed as the brownie leaned in for a kiss.

Stephanie had often daydreamed about what it would be like to kiss another girl, even as she feared she would be awkward and ruin the moment. When their lips met, she knew that she had worried over nothing. Their kiss was electric. It felt natural - right - and she tasted oh so sweet.

Their hands roamed over each other as their tongues intertwined. They both moaned into the kiss, and Stephanie’s already fast-beating heart raced even faster when Prinna’s fingers slipped beneath the tail of her top and began to slide it upward.

Their lips parted in unspoken concert once Stephanie’s top was bunched up above her breasts. She lifted her arms, allowing the brownie to pull it over her head. Before her top even drifted from Prinna’s fingers to the grass below, Stephanie was reaching behind her back to pop the clasp of her bra.

Prinna slipped first the right, and then the left strap off Stephanie’s shoulders. The brownie drew in a gasp that she punctuated with a whimper as she pulled the bra down Stephanie’s outstretched arms, baring her breasts to the brilliant sunlight. Stephanie blushed when she heard the coos of the other two brownies, whom she’d nearly forgotten were there.

Her bra found a home in the grass next to her top, and then she was tasting Prinna’s lips once more. The brownie leaned forward as they kissed, slowly guiding Stephanie to recline. The tall grass depressed beneath her bare back - feeling impossibly soft and inviting - until she fully settled into nature’s bed.

The brownie hovered above her, with her arms bent just enough for their breasts to touch as they kissed. The soft caress both assuaged and deepened the ache in the stiff nubs capping Stephanie’s breasts. Prinna straightened her arms, pulling away from Stephanie’s lips. Playful mischief and desire both twinkled in her brown eyes as her elbows bent, and her lips moved to Stephanie’s neck.

Stephanie writhed in the grass as the brownie kissed and softly suckled her neck. Her hips lifted, pressing her aching need against Prinna’s leg. The brownie’s lips returned to Stephanie’s for a blissful moment of relief, and then darted to the opposite side of her neck.

Whimpers tumbled from Stephanie’s lips from the brownie’s ministrations, growing louder as the kisses moved lower. Her back arched of its own accord when Prinna kissed the swell of her right breast, pressing the globe against the brownie’s lips. Prinna moaned and quickly lifted a leg, straddling Stephanie’s body. Back in control, she kissed each breast in turn before loosing her tongue on the stiff nubs that surmounted them.

The brownie kissed, licked, and suckled, building a fire of need in Stephanie the likes of which she hadn’t felt in a very long time. It wasn’t long before that heat overwhelmed her, and she whimpered, “Please.”

Prinna let the nipple between her lips slip free, and then straightened over her knees. She scooted back, letting her fingertips glide over Stephanie’s abdomen, which caused the blonde beneath her to shiver. That shiver became a quake when the brownie’s fingers slipped beneath the waistband of Stephanie’s shorts.

They moved in perfect concert, allowing Prinna to slide Stephanie’s shorts and recently stitched panties down her legs. The brownie slipped the right foot free before the left, gently guiding Stephanie’s legs apart as she finally bared her fully to the spring morning.

“Your garden is beautiful,” Prinna said as she combed her fingers through the dark blonde curls on Stephanie’s mound. She giggled, and then said, “And I love to explore.”

Stephanie’s heart pattered as the brownie slid her knees back. Prinna lowered herself into the V of Stephanie’s legs, maintaining eye contact until the very last second. Stephanie gasped and the brownie let out a deep, sonorous moan as her tongue slicked back the hair framing Stephanie’s sex.

It was finally happening. After so long fantasizing about it, a beautiful woman was nestled between Stephanie’s thighs, softly tonguing her folds. She looked stunning with her hair fluttering in the breeze, and her butt wiggling back and forth. It was so different from when a man went down on her. The brownie explored her - savored her. Even a man who took his time had always given her the impression of impatience. The goal was to make her come, so he could get his. There was nothing of that in Prinna’s flickering tongue.

“Oh yes. Oh yes,” Stephanie heard herself say as chills shot all through her.

“So sweet,” Prinna responded, her tongue pausing only long enough to utter the words.

Small hands caressed her breasts from either side, and Fern asked, “May we?”