Part fourteen: Spring

• In Love

  
  

  “It feels like spring,” thought Kelly, the young, Irish colleen. “The floodwater is receding, the moon is shining brightly and I am in love with Prince.”

  Prince and Kelly agreed to take the first watch of the night.

  Timothy O’Leary, the good-leprechaun-cobbler, had drifted off to sleep in the tent  Prince had built on the raft. Ambrose, the Irish terrier, snuggled up beside him.      

  Prince climbed up the ladder to the fireplace to add more wood to the glowing embers.

  “Come up here by the fire.” he said, quietly. “There’s room for us both on the stone hearth. We will make more green tea and toast crumpets. Sound good?”

  Kelly nodded in agreement.

  Prince held the ladder as Kelly climbed up beside him. The hearth was warm, as they had kept the fire burning into the night.

  “When the flood water goes down we'll be back on dry land again. It won't take long,” Prince promised.   

  “Prince, that was not a green dragon Timothy spotted earlier, was it?” Kelly asked. “I didn't see it. Did you?”

  “No. There have been green dragons in Ireland, over the years,” replied Prince, taking her hand. “Whatever Timothy saw, it may have headed for the river. I lived beside this pond for five years and have never seen a green dragon. Maybe as a leprechaun, he can see green dragons.”

  Kelly looked relieved.

  “No snakes either?”

  “We are not going to think about green dragons or snakes. Let’s stay close together and just watch the moon.”

  “I don’t remember a flood as bad as this one in the spring.”  

  “I don’t think there has ever been one,” replied Prince. “It brought us together though and I am happy about that.”

  “Me too,” replied Kelly, with a smile.

  Prince wondered if Kelly realized that he was in love with her.

  Inside the tent, Timothy listened in on their conversation.

  “Aha,” he said to himself, drifting back to sleep, again. “Spring has sprung and I know that these two will enjoy having a spring fling together. That dragon tale worked.”