Chapter 1

The old dragon watched the fairy fidgeting as she sat at her desk. He chuckled to himself as she nibbled on a tiny fingernail, then the edge of her quill, if she wiggled any harder she would fall off her chair. Which would not be a surprising sight, since she had done it many times before. "have you finished working out that spell yet?" he asked. Startled she swung around to answer, the ink pot went in one direction and the parchment in the other. She looked down sadly at the mess, then back to the old dragon, with a small sigh she set about cleaning the mess up. When she was all done, she sat down and once again started to work on the lesson she had been given.

The old dragon, Marluxion, finally took pity on her and sent her outside to gather some herbs and flowers that he needed. He winced as she almost flew into the door, she was in such a hurry to get outside. He followed her and stood watching as she dancing about the flowers, talking to the small animals, playing with the birds that nested in the tree's near by. She seemed to absorb the sunshine until she glowed with an inner light.

Her name was Bitsy, a young forest fairy who had come to live with him, some months ago. It seemed as if a tiny whirl wind had entered his lair and his life. She chattered constantly, her thirst for knowledge never ending. She was always moving, never still, flittering from place to place. Even in her sleep she seemed to be in constant motion. He could feel her love for life, she never gave half measure, but grasped everything before her in her tiny hands and held on tenaciously. One day she would be a great power within herself, her affinity for magic was truly amazing, He knew she had no notion of how far she had progressed in such a short time. The gods help them all when she did.

Seeing Marluxion watching her, she smiled and waved at him, tripping over a small root, she laughed and picked herself up. She flew over to the old dragon and sat on his shoulder, looking off into the distance. "its almost time for Virlane and MiLady's hatchling to arrive isn't it? Do you think they will send for us? we really should be there you know, just incase they need anything." she looked at him expectantly. "if they need us, they will send word." he said quietly.

Muttering to herself, she went back to gathering the things that Marluxion had asked for. He chuckled, that was one of the things he had yet to break her of, this muttering to herself. He had Trink to thank for that, the dandy elf was a master of muttering and the two enjoyed each others company, they were often seen sitting under a tree, Trink filling Bitsy's head with his wild elvan adventures.

Bitsy placed the flowers and herbs in the proper bins, she touched the petals, soon winter would be here and everything would sleep till spring. She shivered thinking, it wouldn't hurt to start making her winter clothes. Later that night as she sat trying to concentrate on each painstaking stitch, she looked at Marluxion several times. "If your not careful, you will end up stitching that cape to your fingers, was there something you wanted to ask?" Happy to put down the sewing, she nodded smiling.

"Don't you have a lady friend? Marluxion, Trink says every male needs a lady friend, he says every male needs a plump bosom to rest on, that, if they don't their superior parts will shrivel up and won't work right anymore. So I thought I had better ask you, about a lady friend, if you don't have one perhaps Trink and I could help you find one. I don't think it would be a good idea to shrivel up, no matter how old you are."

Marluxion, who should have known better then to take a sip of wine, just before Bitsy said something with that serious little look on her face, started to choke. she instantly flew to him and started to ineffectually slap his back. "good heavens, you should be more careful, you scared the wits out of me, choking like that." He gasped, getting his breath back and just stared at her. Seeing the look on his face, she flew back to her sewing and tucked her chin down on her chest and started to sew furiously, muttering that she had just smacked him on the back a few times, no need to get touchy about it.

Marluxion carefully put down his goblet and looked at the little fairy. He cleared his throat several times before speaking, "I appreciate you concern, Bitsy, but dragon's superior parts do not shrivel, no matter whether they have a lady friend or not. If I have the need to mate, I find a dragoness who is also feeling the same urge. I think you need to stop taking each of Trink's exaggerations as being the truth of all truths. He is an elf who loves to tell tale tales, most with himself being the rescuing hero to some overly endowed female." He chuckled as he saw her look down at her chest, "everything in its time, child, nature provides what it will, no more, no less."

He realized she was going to pursue the subject and held up a paw, to silence her. "I have an errand for you to run tomorrow, it has been a while since you've seen your parents. I have been sending them regular progress reports, so they needn't worry about your care and well being. You can deliver this next one in person, visit with your family and friends, have a day of play. You have worked hard and earned it." Marluxion had every intentions of informing Bitsy's mother that it was about time she and her daughter had a long discussion on the sexual aspects of a fairy's life.

He sent her off to bed, little bits of thread and cloth trailed behind her, she muttered as she realized she had sewn the new garment to her skirt. After washing up for the night, Bitsy sat on her bed, brushing her hair, she didn't notice the little cracklings of static as she brushed it, she didn't notice how long, and thick it was, how it seemed to float about her and bounce with life, just like she did. Bitsy put her brush away, and slipped under the covers, snuggling down under the warm soft blankets, she fell asleep giggling as she remembered the look on the old dragons face as she mentioned shriveled parts.

The morning dawned bright and crisp, small ice crystals seemed to float in the air, shimmering as the sun slowly came up to melt them into dew drops for the forest. Bitsy dressed quickly, in a hurry to be on her way. She fixed their breakfast, always trying to get Marluxion to eat better, he often seemed too preoccupied with his studies to eat. After cleaning up, she looked expectantly at Marluxion.

He handed her the scroll intended for her parents, this she tucked away in the small pouch she always carried. Telling her to enjoy herself, he sent her on her way. She always loved the way he did that, so autocratically, with a wave of his paw and poof she was gone.

Bitsy stood in the forest glade, watching the morning sun filter down through the tree's, she listened to the sounds of the forest and smiled, this was home. She dearly loved Marluxion and enjoyed living in his lair, learning all the amazing things he had to teach. But it just wasn't home, deep inside the lair you couldn't hear the noise of the forest, the animals waking to the dawn, the tree's coming alive with the sun. With a happy sigh, she twirled around, her arms out stretched, she loved her forest.

With a loud umph she slammed into something and went flying onto her bottom. She looked up startled, the sun in her eye's, she put up her hand. Two strong hands lifted her back onto her feet. "I see you haven't learned to stay upright yet, I'm amazed you've survived as long as you have." a brisk male voice stated. Bitsy bent down to brush herself off and finally got a look at who had helped her up. He was very tall, his hair jet black, down to his collar, his face deeply tanned, His eye's were the color of rich amber. As her eye's slide over him she couldn't help but notice how muscular his thighs looked in his tight leggings. She felt her cheeks turn warm and hurriedly looked elsewhere.

"Hello, WindWhispers, thanks for helping me up, but if you hadn't been standing so close, I wouldn't have banged into you and fallen down." She rambled as she skipped along, as usual not watching where she was going and promptly ran into a small sapling. Once again, the strong hands reached out and caught her before she could fall.

He couldn't help but laugh, he had known Bitsy all her life, she was only 5 years younger then he. They had played together often, until he had reached a certain age, then the idea of playing with a girl fairy was enough to make a guy shudder. The last time she had come home, he had been away, but had heard about her visit from his friends.

For the first time since she had bumped into him, WindWhispers really looked at Bitsy. Instead of the gangly little girl fairy he remembered, there danced along side him a tall, very young woman, her hair falling over her shoulders, down to the middle of her back. He wanted to reach out and touch it, feel it, as it seemed to float around her, an odd color, he thought to himself, not white, not blue, he couldn't quite put his finger on exactly what color it was.

Amid the hugs and chatter from her family and friends, Bitsy lost sight of WindWhispers, several times she looked around for him but he seemed to have left, he promptly vanished from her thoughts as she handed her father the scroll, Marluxion had sent. She nibbled on her lip as she watched her father read, he kept looking at her then reading, then looking at her again. "I'm doing very well in my studies, Father" she said putting on a bright little smile. Her father burst into laughter as he handed the scroll to her mother.

Bitsy stood there fighting back the tears, that her father's laughter had brought to her eye's. Her heart ached deep inside, All her life the forest folk had laughed at her, sometimes unkindly, but usually with what she felt was sympathetic kindness. It still hurt though, no one wants to be laughed at, they want to be laughed with.

"What has she done now? blown up the old dragons work shop again?" She turned with a hiss on her lips and shoved Keebler aside, "I haven't done anything wrong and your mean to even thinks such things!" Bitsy snarled as she fled out the door, banging into the doorway, she kept on going.

Sitting under a small tree, Bitsy cried, her tiny crystal tears streaming down her cheeks. She knew she shouldn't of shoved Keebler, he wasn't a mean fairy, just seemed to find everything in life so amusing. Keebler was her cousin, he had round chubby cheeks, a little button of a nose, and could only be kindly called short. As long as Bitsy could remember Keebler had followed WindWhisper around. Her thoughts distracted, wondering when WindWhisper had gotten so tall, his hands so strong.

Her mother sat down next to her and pulled her into warm loving arms. Bitsy cried against her mothers shoulder for a long time. Thamara softly brushed the tears from her daughter's face. "Your father's laughter was not directed at you, Bitsy, but at what Marluxion had written, he was imagining the look on the old dragon's face as you asked about shriveled parts and couldn't help laughing." at the look on her daughters face, Thamara smiled "yes, he did mention that and a few other things he thought should be brought to our attention. Bitsy, you were born reaching out to the world, your eye's searching for things only you could see. Your love of life, the quest to see and experience everything you possibly can, pushes you in a great rush. One day all the bits and pieces will fall into place, you have to learn to give life time to catch up with you."