No need to apologize, I was already awake. Let me see... [Pause as Zoe thinks over the stories she knows.]

How about the tale of the pixie and the mermaid who fell in love?

Yes, I am sure. I just tend to be lazy in the morning. [Zoe stretches lazily and rests her arms behind her head.]

A long time ago, there was a pixie who fell in love with a handsome mermaid that lived in the forests lagoon. The pixie would admire the mermaid from the trees, and curse her hesitance about approaching him. Then, one day, a mischievous bird stole the coral the mermaid was admiring and dropped it in the forest by accident, and the pixie saw this as her chance to approach the mermaid. So she went deep into the forest where the coral was dropped, dodging birds of prey and foxes so that she could grab the coral and return it back to the mermaid.

The mermaid was very grateful to the pixie for returning the coral, as it was a gift from his late mother. He invited the pixie to talk to him and they talked through the night, and when he needed to return to the depths of the lagoon, he asked the pixie to speak with him the next morning. They continued this for weeks and weeks, and then eventually the mermaid admitted he had fallen for the pixie. Overjoyed her hidden feelings were returned, she accepted his offer to be his wife. And even though they were separated by how they lived in different worlds, they still met on the banks of the lagoon to talk for hours on end everyday.

[Zoe stops and takes a breath, now smiling faintly.] ... I shall admit that it was a story that I was fond of when I was younger.