Click here to share or read more great fiction! This week’s FF is hosted by Lauralee Shaw at her blog, LauraLee’s Lifesong. Enjoy! The underbrush crinkled and crashed behind me as I parted the leaves that hid my ‘fairy circle’. Soft sunlight filtered through the tender greenness, illuminating the dreams and hopes I dared to enjoy here.
“You know, if we’re lost, I’ll sue the velvet socks off of you!” Sheera’s grumpy declaration filtered through the thick summer humidity.
I hid a smile behind my faux fur and waited for my companion to catch up. “We’re here, you can rest now.” I turned to help her with the picnic basket. It took a few minutes before the simple fare was spread out before us.
A rosy-cheeked Sheera settled onto the checkered cloth, her cherub lips moved mutter with words I didn’t pay attention to. “Hey, I promised a good picnic spot, isn’t this good?”
“Good? It’s great. It’s wonderful, you just didn’t tell me it was a thousand miles away from civilization.”
“Not a thousand…” I nibbled on a slice of cheese. “More like a hundred…or so.”
“Nari!” Sheera threw her checkered napkin with expert aim. It hit me square in the face. “Remind me to never listen to you again!”
“Okay.” I dangled the napkin from my fingertips. “Never listen to me again.”
“Shut up!” Sheera flopped onto the ground beside me, laughing spilling out. “I knew I shouldn’t have come. You always drag me along on these crazy ideas to nowhere.”
“Well, yeah. Maybe, but nowhere is lots of fun! Just look how much fun we’re having!”
“Speak for yourself, sista.” Sheera rolled up to hug her knees. “Ummm, I’m starving. Those better be your world-famous sandwiches in there, or I’m gonna scream.”
I poked her elbow. “Go ahead, scream. We’re in the middle of no where, who’s listening?”
That prompted another round of giggles and then a search for paper cups to go with our thermos of lemonade.
“It’s beautiful here.” Sheera mumbled around her sandwich. “Truly beautiful.”
The laughter died away and I sighed. “Yeah. It is.” We shared a smile before rousing ourselves to clean up our messy picnic.
“Smart you.” Sheera snickered. “You are listening to me.”
“What?” I flicked a paper cup in her direction.
“Recyclables.” She tucked the paper cup into the basket and nestled it at the base of a sturdy oak tree. “There we go…we’re pleasantly stuffed and we’ve done our bit for the enviroment and general good. All done!”
“uh-huh.” I dropped to the ground, tugging off my shoes and socks. “No, now I’m all done.” Tucking the socks into the sneakers, I hid those in the brush and then smuggled the picnic basket in after them. “I thought I told you to pick the smallest basket.” I grumped, holding the bushes back for Sheera to add her own footwear and socks.
“I did. It’s not my fault everything in that place you call home is simply gigantic!” Sheera wrinkled her nose. “Ewww….I think my feet stink.”
“Gross!” I danced sideways, wiggling my toes in the soft grass. “Ever heard of too much information?”
A strangled sound came from her throat. “Nari, if you make me laugh and I wake up the entire countryside-”
“Shhh!” I darted forward to cover her mouth. “Shhh! It took me forever to find this place. You know we can’t take any chances.”
Sheera twisted away. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. Can we go already?” She scratched her arm absently, then froze.
We stared at each other in horror, for the very briefest of moments, before we grabbed at our throats. My fingers closed around the tiny rainbow-colored pearl nestled in the hollow of my neck.
The soft tinkle of music teased my ears and then I felt the transformation start, an itching, then a tingling, from the bottom of my feet to the tips of my ears. Fairy dust spread over me as I returned to my true, fairy form. The world around me seemed to mushroom in size as I drew on the powers to miniaturize. The sunlight reflected patches of random rainbows about the wooded circle as my wings sprouted and fluttered.
Sheera’s transformation was quicker than mine and she hovered nearby, watching. As we both shrank in size, we stayed close to each other. “Nari?” She whispered, clutching at my wrist. “I think we’d better take our human things with us.” She scratched her arm again. “Quickly.”
I bobbed my head, not trusting my voice to speak quietly enough. Sprinkling fairy dust over the said items shrank them to a size where we could easily carry them with us. I hugged the picnic basket close as Sheera knotted our shoelaces together.
The sound of crashing underbrush sent shivers through my wings. I flew after Sheera with all the speed I could muster.
“Home sweet home!” Sheera called over her shoulder, dodging about the blades of grass and between the tree branches in her strange zigzag flight.
The true fairy circle came into sight. I poured on the speed, feeling my strength slowly draining away. “Come on Nari!” Sheera’s frantic voice spurred me on as my eyelids now grew heavy. “Don’t give into it, don’t!”
A soft pink glow came from the fat root at the foot of the withered willow tree. I aimed for it as the weakness became too much to bear.
Blackness was brief, for when my eyes fluttered open, I stared up in the face of Sheera and our dear fairy queen.
“Nari!” They exclaimed as one, tears and hugs showered over me.
I was safe, finally. “What happened?”
“You’ve been out of form so long that your human emotions nearly…well…” The queen hesitated. “You’re very lucky, love. They’re still out there looking for you.” She nodded towards the knothole lookout. “Come. You’ll be fine, now that you’ve transformed. Though mayhap a little dizzy, I’d recommend that you didn’t do much flying until you’ve rested some.”
With Sheera’s help, I made it to the knothole and stared through into the world where I’d lived and hid for the past five years. Huge booted feet stepped down in front and I jerked back, nearly toppling off the ledge.
“Whoa! Take it easy, girlfriend!” Sheera’s accent was fading as she grabbed me close. “They can’t see us and they can’t touch us, don’t worry. We’re safe now. We’re safe.”
Her words lingered and echoed in my head. I rested it on her shoulder, feeling the sleepiness returning. “As long as they can’t see us…I’m fine.” I mumbled into her fuzzy shoulder. “It’s good to be home.”
She laughed. “Yeah. It is. No more running, hiding and being stuck as a wingless giant.” She shivered. “I don’t see how humans do it. And if they ever ask for more fairy volunteers to go to the human world, remind me never to listen to you-again!”
“Mmmhmm.” I yawned. “Sheera…never listen to me again.”
Copyright 2008 Sara Harricharan