Dawn was fingering the leaves of a birch tree when Erlina found him sleeping beneath it.

He was no longer a boy but not yet a man; only a few hairs sprouted from his strong, square chin. His hair, now resting beneath his head, was thick and rich and looked as though it would flow to his shoulders if he were to stand. Erlina touched it gingerly while he slept, not wanting to wake him.

The boy/man started, opening his eyes. Erlina saw that they were pale blue, like the sky in winter.

"Who... who are you?" He sat up and backed against the birch.

She laughed merrily. "Why I am Erlina, human! Who are you and why do you trespass in my woods?"

He stared at her a moment longer, mastered his slight trembling, then looked at the ground. "Aldred," he said quietly.

"Why do you not look at me?"

"Because you have no clothes, Lady Erlina."

Erlina laughed, delighted. "What need of garments have I?"

She saw him glance up admiringly through his lashes. He blushed and looked quickly away. Truly adorable, she thought, deciding then and there to keep him. "If you are kind to me," she said softly, "I may let you kiss me."

"Um," Aldred managed, then fell silent.

Erlina laughed again, pirouetted, and leapt to a tree stump.

"Truly," Aldred ventured, "truly it is an honor to be waked by a beautiful fairy, no doubt a princess or the very queen of the court..."

"Why, Aldred, you flatter me, don't you?"

"Um. Well."

"There's no need to fear me, Aldred. I like you. Perhaps we can be friends."

"I'd like that."

"So would I. Ask a boon of me."

"What?"

"Go ahead. Ask a boon of me."

Aldred sat almost completely still, his eyebrows twitching minutely, his lips shifting slightly to his left, then his right.

"Aldred." A stern note had crept into Erlina's voiice. "You don't wish to make me cross, do you?"

"No," Aldred answered quickly. The words tumbled out of him then, as if she had dislodged the stone that had dammed the river. "There's a girl..." He cleared his throat. "A lovely girl. When first I saw her, she stole my heart. Her hair is long and dark, and her eyes--her eyes are like gentle brown pools that I could drown in. Her lips are soft, like down feathers, and her laughter is music."

Erlina's wild red locks bobbed up and down as she nodded with understanding.

Aldred had ceased staring at the forest floor and looked into the distance as he continued his tale, his eyes wide with reverie. "On the forest's edge we often met, and learned to know each other, as lovers do. She agreed at last to come away with me, but her father and brothers caught us as she left her home last night. We escaped into the woods, but were parted and lost each other in the darkness. I would do anything to have her again in my arms."

"Why you've something of the poet in you, Aldred," said Erlina. Aldred's request seemed a simple one. She'd heard of humans begging for golden rocks from the earth's depths, or magic to rule nations of men, or even for the answers to questions mortals were not meant to know. In comparison, Aldred sounded quite reasonable. "I will help you, Aldred."

"You will?" He smiled in confused joy.

"Oh yes." She hopped down from the tree stump.

"Wait!" Aldred leapt to his feet.

Erlina turned.

"Your pardon, M'lady, but what will you ask of me in return?"

Erlina smiled sweetly. "Well, it is a boon. I would ask for little in return. Perhaps a kiss. Yes, a kiss from your sweet young lips." And with that, Erlina darted into the woods and was lost to his sight.

Erlina found the girl with no great effort, and aided by fairy magics, bore her in her slender arms swiftly back to Aldred. "Here she is," Erlina declared joyfully.

Aldred took the limp form from Erlina, staring at the girl's bloody blouse and round, fixed eyes. "She, she's dead!" Aldred choked back a sob. "What happened to her?"

Erlina extended her palm. In it rested a lumpy brown and pink and red object. "I searched and searched," said Erlina, "but she only had the one heart. Is this the one she stole?

Aldred let out a strange choking noise, then backed away, the girl slipping from his shaking hands.

"What's wrong?" Asked Erlina.

Aldred's mouth worked silently. He met Erlina's eyes in terror, choked down another sob, then whirled and bolted into the woods.

Erlina thought at first that, overwhelmed by her generosity, Aldred had run off to find some appropriate thank-you gift--but he did not return that day. Nor did he return the day following. By that time the heart had grown rotten and began to stink, and Erlina was forced to throw it out.

Aldred never did return to claim it in any case, or give her the kiss she was due. Erlina resolved from then on not to truck with humans, for they were a thankless sort.