Fearie III

Niamh rides a long way in the underbelly of the great infant-holding creature. After what seems like the most perilous of journeys, the creature stops, as does the child's mother. Drawing a deep breath, Niamh looks around. They're stopped outside of a cottage, similar to one she's seen once before near her home. This, however, is not abandoned as the one Niamh knows. In fact, it seems that the child and its mother may live in it themselves.
The mother walks around to the front of the creature. Niamh sits tense, sure that the monster will fight. but to her surprise, after just a few seconds the great creature relinquishes the child, and walks, holding the infant, into the little house.
Quickly, trying to avoid any humans, Niamh jumps off of the beast and runs into the shrubbery in front of the house. Waiting there, she sees the human mother and an even larger human- a male- walking towards the strange animal.
"Honey, could you get the stroller?"
"Sure."
The second voice, the male, is deep and fills Niamh with much more fear than the gentle voice of the mother-human. However, she continues to watch from behind a hydrangea as he walks towards the animal and fidgets about its legs. suddenly, the belly of it has collapsed, and it lays sideways upon the ground. He has killed this thing called "stroller!" Curiously, though, he picks it up under one arm and bears it into the house. Perhaps it will be their meal...
Despite the apparent danger of the situation, Niamh slips into the house just before the mother, following the man- apparently the father-human, slams it shut.
In the house there are many more strange creatures, and Niamh wonders if each of them has been killed in the same manner of the stroller, as none moves. She sees something with a large, square body held on four straight legs, and something else which seems not to have been dead long, as it is soft and warm, and even larger than a dog.
Beyond the soft animal is the child, now trapped in a small fence of some sort. Surely they don't plan to use it as food? But Niamh's parents had told her long ago of humans keeping large animals inside fences and stealing their milk until they slaughtered the animals and use them to eat. The child, however, did not seem to think it would be used as food. In fact, it giggled merrily to itself, flailing its arms and legs.
Carefully, Niamh moves towards the laughing human, thinking that perhaps it's youth may render it safer than its full-grown counterparts. Standing on the other side of the wooden bars, Niamh begins to whisper.
"Hello! Can you understand, or are you yet too young?"
The child, turning to hear the whispering sound better lets out a cheerful "AHH!"
Niamh moves back several inches but does not run as it looks through the bars and continues to coo. The child, whether mesmerized by Niamh's almost ethereal glow or her size or simply her movement, tries to roll to better see her, but only manages to see her by turning its head so that its cheek is parallel with the floor.
Several minutes later, the parents come back into the room just as Niamh slips under the large creature, still warm and soft. Atop this creature the parents sit, and for several hours Niamh listens to pleasant conversation and watches the child. Niamh learns, by listening, that the creature here is a "couch" and that the child is called Emily. Then, after the only light comes from atop the square bodied creatures and from a small sun which hangs from the ceiling, the mother says "You ready for bed, Emily?"
The child does not seem to understand the question, but is delighted nonetheless when the mother picks her up out of the fence.
"I'll go pour some wine." It is the deep voice of the father, and causes Niamh to jump in her place under the couch. The father leaves the room and enters some other part of the home, as do the mother and child. Niamh follows the pair of females carefully, and finds herself in Emily's bedroom. After new clothes are put onto her, her mother says, "Into your crib, now." and lowers Emily into another fence, this time raised off the ground like the stroller. "Nighty-night."
After she is sure the mother is gone, Emily climbs up the leg of the crib and through the bars to see Emily. In the darkness of the room, Niamh's glow is startling, and Emily watches her ans she moves about the little crib and whispers. After a long while, Emily falls asleep and Niamh finds a warm place to rest in the corner behind the crib. Perhaps I will make a friend of this Emily, and perhaps her parent-humans will not kill me.

It was the very first time that Emily slept through the night.