The little girl never looked up. She didn't hear Zelle's tiny wings softly strumming a rhythm very much like a heart beat. Zelle decided to try to offer her gift to the little girl.

Gently she lofted on the little girls back... reached down with her teeny tiny lips... and dropped the sweetest little kiss onto her exposed neck.

Just as her lips touched... everything got brighter all around. Silver glitter flowed freely all around the kiss. The little girl was shocked by the warmth filling her entire body and she JUMPED TO HER FEET! All at once, the tiny faerie felt her whole self being sucked up into the little girl. She didn't resist. She knew she'd found her home. Only a moment had passed before the tiny faerie was no more. All of her love filled the little girls heart. All of her body and her blood were new coursing through the little girls body. Zelle could see through the little girls eyes... she suddenly realized that she and the little girl were one in the same. These big giant hands she held in front of her face were just the right size to this little girl.

She also knew everything the little girl knew. Her name was Joanne. She was two years old, and she was all alone. Her twin died when she was born, and all the other sisters and brothers were in new homes. Her magical native American parents died recently...and nobody has come to hold her yet.

She knew she should be flying home...but just a touch more wandering in this new land would give her something to share when she got home. So she found the shore of the the wide river and started walking along in the soft grey dirt. To faeries all the sounds of the world are like singing. She hears the symphony of the leaves rustling, water rushing, wind blowing through the little broken twigs and dead trees. She stopped because in this beautiful symphony she heard something sad... Sad things always tug at Zelle's heart. She can't help but want to kiss their sadness away. Little irregular sobs... and tears dropping into the dirt. One by one, making their own sad song as they cool and seep slowly into the river. A girl.

She was sitting with her legs crossed and her head down... One little hand drawing circles with a stick in the mud. Tears flowed freely down her little pink cheeks. Her sadness reached out and grabbed Zelle.

Once upon a time...there was a faerie named Zelle. She lived with all the other faerie folk and gave her blessing to each as was determined by mother nature long before any of us were born. She saw sadness, swooped down behind each little faerie, kissed their neck. She left sparkly little glitter kisses, but what she really left was love... their hearts filled up. Sometimes the glitter left little shapes on their necks that stayed for the rest of their lives...sometimes it trailed down their backs...and once in a great while it was all soaked up. When it was soaked up the faerie that was kissed was given the gift of Zelle and was able to give love just as readily and always deeply.

Zelle lived her life giving to the faeries happily. She always received their gifts in return and her life was full and beautiful. She was a wanderer though. She let streams of water and wind carry her away from her home, but she would always find her way back.

One day she wandered further from home than ever before. She slept on the cool river. It flowed quickly with the bright energy of mother nature. When Zelle opened her eyes she found a world that she'd never seen before. It was big...very big...unbelievably big! The sparkle had warn off of most things here, though mother nature still had her mark on as much as she could manage. Nothing felt as alive as home does.

She picked herself up off of the water... Shook her sparkly little wings and laughed as the little icy droplets fell back into the river. She could hear each little drop sing as it folded itself back into it's larger body. She hopped and flied from twig to twig... feeling the cool breeze flow over her body. Her inner fire kept her from feeling the cold in any bad way. It just felt like life and experience and wonder on her glittery skin.