What if, just like nature, Faery had more space?
Creatures from fairy tales and myths are now freer to move around in the open, and less at risk of exposing themselves.
This said, they are still really good at masking and posing as humans or animals, and at hiding in their environment.

1. The old lady and the caring neighbour

Mrs Watson was coming back with her shopping, wobbling along the street, when that really quiet yet eccentric neighbour of hers – he has long silver hair and purple eyes, can you imagine! – offered to help her.
Of course they had to keep their distances, so she first set her bag on the floor and walked away before he picked it up.
Once at her house, she went in and he set the bag on the porch.

“Thank you very much, young man, it was very kind of you! I never quite know what to make of you but you seem like a sweet young man!”

The young man, slightly older than the old lady, kept his composure.
“I understand, I have a bit of a strange look, but I assure you, I am very friendly!” He smiled, a warm, genuine smile. “Would you like me to do your shopping next time, so you don’t have to carry it?”

“It would be lovely of you, but I wouldn’t want to impose. And I need to do some walking.”

“I really don’t mind, and it’s probably safer for you to walk unhindered by a heavy bag. I could do your weekly shopping and you can go on a walk when you want to. I can even walk along, 6 feet away, if you want some company.”

Mrs Watson agreed, and found herself quite happy with their arrangement. So did Aldaran, a young 90 years old fae.
He gets the shopping done and watch over Janine during her walks, and his adoptive grand-mother, as she jokingly says, bakes cakes for them to share. Really good cakes.

 

2. The man and the wolf

Pierre was leaning out of his sitting room window, on the second floor, like every evening since the beginning of the lock-down at the time “between dog and wolf”.
Just as he was thinking that he noticed a dog walking in the middle of the quiet street.
The animal wasn’t running but Pierre thought that it behaved as if it was on its way to do something important, which made him chuckle. A dog going to a meeting or to work, just like humans would do, was a funny idea.

The dog stopped, then, right under a street lamp and turned around to look directly at Pierre. That’s when he noticed the pointed ears, and the shape of his snout and tail. It looked like a wolf, from that distance.

“It must be a wolfhound! I’ve never seen one around here. Maybe he ran away. I hope he’ll go home by himself.”

The dog nodded to him, or at least that’s the impression he got, and that puzzled him.
Dogs don’t nod to people.
For the next week, every evening at around the same time, the dog would be there and nod at him.
Pierre decided he was imagining the dog was nodding, but that it might have somehow taken a liking to him

On the following Monday, Pierre went out shopping – for the basic staples – and, as he was debating which tea to try this time, he looked away to see a stranger staring at him. His eyes were a strange colour, brown and golden, and the fact that he nodded to him before being on his way was even stranger considering he didn’t know him.

That evening, the wolfhound was back and nodded. Pierre ran down the stairs this time, but was too slow.
The following day, when he checked his letterbox out of habit, it gave him a reason to go down the stairs once a day, he found an envelope with a selection of tea bags in it. The strangest thing, however, was the slight dent on the envelope in the shape of dog teeth, as if it had been delicately carried by, say, a wolfhound.

The lock-down was getting a lot more interesting.