Nina had been lost before. Many times already had she let go of Mamma's hand and found herself all alone in a sea of strangers. But this was different. This was the forest.

She couldn't remember anymore how it had happened. The fear and panic had blotted out everything from her head, except for one thought: she wanted to go home to her Mamma. But where was home? Where was Mamma?

She was running past a big old tree when suddenly she heard something very strange that she had never heard before. She stopped her sobbing and stood still. It came from just above her, a strange music floating down… It was the most beautiful music she had ever heard, the most wonderful sound she could ever imagine, and somehow, hearing it made her forget that she was a little girl all alone in a big forest. She looked up.

A man was sitting there, on a branch, calmly smoking a cigarette. Beside him, the radio playing the music hung from another branch. He was wearing strange clothes, and had very strange ears, but he looked so beautiful that Nina decided that he must be an angel. (She had forgotten at the moment that Aunty always said angels never smoke.)

The smoking angel man seemed to have noticed her. He put off the radio and slowly turned to look down at her. She quickly wiped from her eyes, but he had seen them already. (Anyway, angels knew everything, right?)

"And what," he asked in the most beautiful angelic voice, "is a sweet little girl like you doing all alone in the forest?"

"I'm not little!" Nina protested. "I thought you knew that!"

"Oh? How old are you, then?" he asked.

What a strange angel, Nina thought. Maybe he was new to the job. "I'm a big girl now," she said. "I'm five years old, you know!" And she held out five fingers for him to see. "And how old are you?" she asked, curious.

The angel man thought for a while, then said, "I… can't really remember. I'm afraid I lost count some time ago. I was never much good at counting." He smiled an angelic smile. Then he asked, "So what are you doing in this forest all by yourself? Aren't you scared?"

"Not when you're here!" she said, smiling, her tears almost forgotten. Then she remembered. "Well… I can't find Mamma anymore. That's why I'm here."

"Where do you live?" the angel man asked.

Nina immediately recited her address. She was very proud of having remembered it, Mamma had taught it to her only some time ago.

The angel man threw away his cigarette and climbed quickly down the tree, as if he usually lived on it. Strange, Nina thought. Didn't angels live on clouds normally? She also noticed now that he had no wings, but she didn't dare ask him why because she was scared of offending him.

He took her hand and led the way through the forest, as if he knew the way very well. He was very friendly, Nina thought, but angels were always like that. "Do you live on that tree?" she asked after a while.

"Sometimes," he said.

"Are you always so alone?" she asked.

He didn't say anything for a while and she thought maybe she had offended him and he was now going to leave her and go away. But then he said very quietly, "I… I am the only one left now…"

That was very shocking news. No more angels? "But where are the others?" Nina asked worriedly.

The angel man shrugged. He looked sad. And they didn't say anything for a long time.

After a while Nina noticed that they were getting closer to her village. She could hear the cows on the fields and could smell the hay from the farms. "We're nearly there!" she said, skipping happily. And then she could see the path and the way back out of the forest. Soon she would be back home and back with Mamma.

The angel man saw it too and stopped. Surprised, Nina looked up at him and asked, "Why did you stop? We're not there yet!" And she pulled at his hand. But he didn't move, staring through the trees at the houses and farms.

Then he said, "I will leave you here," and let go of her hand.

He turned around to go back, but she stopped him and asked, "Why aren't you coming? I want to show you to Mamma and tell her how nice you are!"

The angel man sighed like Mamma did when she got a headache sometimes. "I… have never left the forest before," he said. "And I don't intend ever to leave it. Go on, you can go home alone, you're a big girl now." And he pushed her gently towards the path.

She looked at him and she knew that probably she was never going to see him again. Now that she saw him in the light he looked a bit tired, and very sad. She slipped her hand into his and pressed it. "Well… bye then," she said. "I'll miss you though."

The angel man laughed. Then he became serious and put his hand into his pocket. He seemed to be thinking for a while. Then he took it out, and she saw that he was holding something. It was a real silver necklace, like those Mamma sometimes wore, just more beautiful. Nina was sure that it was made of the jewels of heaven.

He put it carefully around her neck. "I want you to keep this," he said, "and remember me. All right?" Nina nodded. Somehow she felt the tears come again. She had a feeling that she was never going to see him again.

The angel man bent down to hug her, then he whispered, "Go home now, your Mamma will be worried about you." And she ran quickly down the path, back towards home, back to Mamma. She stopped once and looked back. She didn't see him at first because of his green clothes. But he was standing there, watching her. She waved to him, then ran away home.

---

She was on her way home from work, carrying heavy bags full of shopping, when she saw him. How long ago had it been, sixteen, seventeen years ago? Yet she saw him, and she remembered him. The angel man who had saved her from the forest.

He still looked the same, maybe older, maybe sadder. She passed him by on the street, in the big city where she lived now. She had almost forgotten him. But she still had the necklace.

In the past sixteen years she had sometimes asked herself why she still kept it. She no longer believed in angels; sometimes she wasn't even sure whether her memories of that day were real. As a teenager she had often explained to her friends that she had received the necklace from some rich admirer who was the prince of some foreign land. After some time she didn't even believe in that. But when she saw him again, sitting on the sidewalk, she knew that he was real. And she remembered.

But now he looked different. He looked hungry and poor, his clothes ragged and worn. But he was still smoking, and still listening to the strange, beautiful music on his radio.

She thought she could pass him by, thought that he had forgotten. But he hadn't. He noticed that she had stopped, and before she could go on he looked up at her. "You look different," he said. She didn't reply, but she knew that she couldn't fool him into believing she had forgotten. "So you're here too now," he sighed after a while. He sounded older, and coughed from the cigarette smoke.

She couldn't keep herself from asking the question. It was as if the five-year-old Nina was forcing herself back. "Why did you leave the forest?"

He coughed and looked up sadly. "I had to," he said. "There is no forest anymore."

Oh yes… she had forgotten. Now there were only fields there, where the forest had stood. Only the big old tree still stood there, the tree where she had first met him, her angel man. She had gone there, she was seven or eight maybe, but he wasn't there. So he had come here, it seemed…

They said nothing for some time, only looking at each other. She didn't know what to say and she knew she should get home soon. In the end, she broke the silence and said, "Um… I have to go." And she went away. She didn't know why. It was so abrupt, she knew she was being unkind. But she didn't know what to tell him.

She arrived home and put down the shopping bags. She went to her room and took the necklace out of the box she had kept it in all those years. Now she knew where it came from. Now she knew why it was so beautiful. Now she knew who her angel man was.

She wanted to tell him. She wanted to go back and tell him that she knew, that she knew who he was and that she wanted to give him back the necklace now that he was so hungry and poor. She wanted to go there the next day.

But it was too late. She knew it as soon as she woke up the next morning. She went to the street and saw that he was no longer there. She stood there with the necklace in her hand, knowing that she had missed her chance.

She had missed the chance to help the last of the elves.