This stunning short fantasy is published in an anthology titled in LITTLE GIRL LOST, Mannison Press, 2019. It is a masterpiece of mood and dialogue and well worth a read.

The plot turns on a not quite by chance pas-de-deux in a forest at dusk. 

A young princess has run away from a family that will not nurture her ambition to be queen of everything; her aim is to find someone who will. A Pooka imprisoned in the forest encounters her and insinuates himself into her awareness. He exists in the sleek figure of horse, the master of advance and retreat, insight, and persuasion; his aim is to persuade her to ride him.

The twinned themes of hope and dread that shape their conversation are wondrously cast out in filaments of fantasy and reality as sticky as spider webbing until the macabre dance reaches its conclusion, and the Pooka kneels.