Prologue: A Hunters Day

f cavalry, their sabers shining bright. We have scarce gunpowder, many of us wear clothes meant for toiling in the fields, armed with nothing but spears. Laughable? Each one of us came to die. After the battle at Longford, the sunken roads were piled high with mountains of corpses, blood forming rivers below. Most of the dead were Irish. The French are honourable prisoners of war, to be kept for exchange with British captives across the channel. I stripped the clothes off a dead British soldier and put them on, walking for seven or eight days to reach this place. In a matter of days, I too shall lie in a ditch, my skull crushed by the hooves of horses, my body devoured by wild dogs. But what does it matter?"

"Where are you heading next?" Lucas asked.

"Further northwest. There are still people fighting there. It''s said that another French reinforcements will arrive soon."

Lucas went back inside and returned with a small bag of corn, offering it to her. "Take these with you."

"No need." The red-haired woman shook her head firmly. "I doubt I''ll have the chance to eat another meal."

As she walked out the door without looking back, her hair still not completely dry.

The hunter stood at the doorstep, gazing as that figure vanished into the thick mist, his heart still tinged with a sense of unreality.

"Papa!" a child''s voice, as clear and dulcet as a dewdrop, interrupted his reverie.

"Leni!" Lucas turned around, and in that instant when he opened his arms towards the little one, the solemn expression on his face transformed into an infinitely tender smile, evoking the image of the mist sometimes dispersing around the solitary lighthouse at Wicklow Head, revealing an alpenglow where childish strokes of baby pinks, sky blues, and golden hues blended together. It was a magic that only a father could possess.

"I just saw the fairies!" the little girl exclaimed, leaping into the hunter''s embrace, her arms wrapped around his neck, her voice filled with pride.

"Oh? You saw the fairies? What do they look like?" Lucas gazed at his daughter with a seriousness that couldn''t possibly be feigned.

"They are tall, wearing green robes, and everyone has fiery red hair. They walk in a line through the fog. Above their heads, there is a beam of light, so bright, so bright, reaching all the way up to the heavens."