Certainly hope to hear that the next foolish driver ends up having to make paid on their error. Those that can't concern themselves with following good sense should not be allowed on the road. The good doctor will be a loss to the hospital and the town if he can't be saved as he could have saved many lives and lessened the pain of others, but it seems he may receive a second life, but hopefully not at the loss of his memories. Painful memories can create great strengths for some when they are balanced with the memories of the happy joyful moments too.

Totally wacko speculation ahead... you have been warned!

-- snicker --

So did the fairies evaluate his/her spirit and decide he needed to live? Or was there a split between his male human form and her fairy form?

And his, well her reminiscing about the wife is curious. Was the wife a pixy/fairy who gave up on their heritage over the love of this brave ex-army surgeon? Does he have pixy/fey blood in his heritage?

And why did the former army friend invite him? The new wife's name was odd. Is she from Southeast Asia and possibly conversant with magic and the spirits of the forest such as pixies?

Knowing he so loved his dead wife was this to ease his loneliness? Or... to give her a second chance at life?

Did the supposedly late wife leave him a giot of her pixxy magic which the accident triggered? Is she really dead?

Their not having children could be for mundane reasons. Or pixies and humans are incompatible. Or if they had had a child it likely would have been a magic user from birth and obviously NOT human? Thus she chose not to get pregnant.

Or has my speculation organ exploded?

Love to see where you taking this. And I see our powerful if a bit too powerful young pixy is involved.... again.

John in Wauwatosa

So Matthew / Poppy's now caught between two worlds: that of his usual life as a 60-something year old former Marine and Navy corpsman interrupted en-route to Skogshaven and a potential new life as a pixie called Poppy within the Skogshaven woodland.

I guess that as the story evolves we'll find out more about how the rare pixies that originate on earth, erm, originate. Given the diminutive size of pixies, I'm sceptical of the theory that Elaine was a pixie who assumed human form, but perhaps it's something like a combination of some fae blood in his ancestry combined with the overwhelming desire to protect combined with magic (perhaps residual wash from Lily's habit of spellcasting effort turned up to 11) combined with something else.

[EDIT] Also, something to watch out for in future chapters: who Joshua Chamberlain is/was - a name remembered by Poppy, but doesn't occur anywhere else either in the story or in Payter's gazeteer (which has already been updated with the characters from here!).