The Faerie Ring Dance

by Kara Skye Smith

  let’s go, all of you - we’ll entertain our visitor as an

  Ellewyon faerie should.” Then, when Blossom started to

  roll her eyes he said, ‘It’s not often we have a wee

  visitor, Blossom, not a bird but a real, wee magical folk

  a real treat for us and we must make this worth his time.

  Come, come, come. Out, out, out!” and he shooed us all out of the house with such things as the

  fasteners, petals, feathers, faerie-sized dress forms, and

  leaves.

  At dinner, I realized what I’d gotten myself into.

  Blossom’s father was absolutely against the human sort of

  all kinds, ‘but a very rare fellow, indeed’ he’s said. Once

  again, I remembered the twinge but did not tell him I

  intended to take his daughter to the house of a human. I

  silently questioned my idea of asking Blossom to plead

  Honor’s case with me to Blithe, but again I pushedaway

  doubt with a swig of some very good cherry cider and

  ate goat’s milk cheese and toast with elderberry jam.

  Faerie fiddlers played and wee sized children

  danced and then a feast of wild mushroom pie and

  gooseberry cream cakes was served upon long, long tables

  to every age and variety of fairy I could have imagined.

  Several birds were also guests at the table. A wren and a

  yellow-bellied warbler. I was told by Blossom who sat

  next to me and often filled me in on the comings and goings on around us.

  “A whirlwind and a delight,” I thought of the

  dinner after guests and family left the table, one by one,

  and Blossom and I were left alone to talk as her father

  greatly enjoyed the wisdom and company of birds; and,

  he’d told me once I learned to talk to them, I’d find

  there really is not better conversationalist than a bird.

  This is true, but it was to be many years before Iknew

  this and agreed. He excused himself and his other two

  guests and left the table to adjourn to a room with a

  warm, chestnut shell stove, a whittled wood pipe, and

  warm, comfy chairs off the kitchen. I then told Blossom

  of my request, which now felt like a secret, asking her to

  come with me upon the rise of the morning, and then I

  betrayed her slightly, as I told her the tea would be with

  my family and I intentionally did not tell her ‘of

  humans’. She kindly and most graciously agreed without

  a second thought. A group of sisters then called for

  music to be played in the open round where all stairs converged and we danced and played in merriment until

  the sun arose. Then Blossom and I bid farewell and set

  off for the hollow and the McGillicutty’s home.

  Two steps out of the tree; however, I was

  stopped short by two things: the loyalty of a housecat,

  and my own tendency toward inconsideration. Peter had

  waited outside the tree all night long; and, I had

  forgotten that I had asked him to wait there at all.

  Peter was sleeping, and I thought this a good timeto tell

  Blossom what we were about to do - so, I didn’t wake

  him. Then, before I could explain my plan, I saw and

  heard something, voices, so I paused. Coming out of the

  wood along the route from the hollow was Honor and a

  man I’d never seen before who walked behind her. She

  was carrying a pail and sounded very happy as her voice

  was melodious and she laughed occasionally as they

  walked.

  Blossom decided she wanted a coat and went

  back into the tree to retrieve one. Honor and her companion stopped near an old oak tree to look at a

  group of mushrooms near its base. I saw one foot of a

  tree person, silently, slip out of sight; then, a nut shell

  dropped down to the ground from whence it had been.

  I watched, not knowing what to think of this while

  Honor poked around the base of the tree, looking. She

  looked beautiful. Her dark hair tousled, her cheeks pink.

  She wore a lovely, dark blue shawl and a grey, pin

  striped dress. I hear her speak clearly as I admit I was

  intentionally listening more closely.

  She said, “Here you are. Here’s what I’ve been

  telling you about,” and she held up to him a perfect,

  wild mushroom. She turned it once or twice in front of

  his eyes and then dropped it in the pail.

  I almost yelled, “Honor!” and then ran over, but

  curious, I listened to his reply, as his expression showed

  no signs of intrigue or excitability toward her find at all.

  Then, once I’d heard his reply, I felt awkward, a third

  wheel. Like I’d overheard and I definitely could not interrupt.

  “Honor, dear,” he said, “I could buy you all the

  mushrooms - even wild ones - you’d ever hope for. I’m

  telling you, dear, I must have a wife and this hiatus of

  mine - to look for one - must come to an end. I must

  get back to business, the factory and the business of

  money, and Honor,” he said, “I am asking you to bemy

  wife. Why, you’re fair and lovely, even out here in this,

  this muck.” He smiled a weak little grin.

  “O, Mr. Fitzpatrick!” she said in a sigh. She

  turned to him and he lifted her hands to his, moved the

  pail with a look of only slight annoyance toward the

  crook of her arm and then raised both her hands in his.

  From his pocket, he took something out and she nearly

  shrieked when she saw it. Blossom arrived just then out

  the fairies’ door. She wore a rose petal poncho and dove

  feathered boots and she smiled as through the sprint up

  the tall tree was nothing at all. I frowned worried of

  Blithe’s disapproval and the innocent goodness of Blossom mixing at tea.

  “And now this!” I worried out loud.

  Blossom’s smile lessened momentarily and she

  asked me, “Now what?”

  “I have to tell you, Blossom, tea will not be what

  I expected, today. Well, it might be a bit tense,” I told

  her, “or emotional, because you see -” Then, Blossom

  yanked on my arm and I heard the ‘pop, pop’ sound I’d

  heard the first time I saw Blossom and some of her

  sisters.

  “Human!” she said in a sharp sounding hiss. I

  looked at my hands but I couldn’t see them. The grass

  and the Old Soul’s tree could be seen right through

  them.

  “Are we invisible?” I asked her.

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  “Wow,” I said.

  “Come on,” she insisted and flew toward the

  woods. I ran to catch up, then tired, I flew. It was easier than it normally was for me, flying. I could

  suddenly fly very fast.

  “Hey, this isn’t bad,” I thought. I zoomed and

  zagged and made myself laugh. I glanced back at the

  pair of newly promised matrimonial love before entering

  the wood. They were in love. I sighed. Then, I looked

  ahead and swerved - a tree! - trying to catch up with

  Blossom, I wondered how in the realm I would explain

  after seeing Blossom’s reaction to Honor that our meeting

  - our tea - was a planned introduction to humans - my

  family, I’d called them - a
nd would be held in a human’s house, too!

  The Faerie Ring Dance

  Chapter Ten * The Faerie Queen

  Unable to keep pace with Blossom, I couldn’t

  tell her where to go in order to reach the McGillicutty’s;

  so, when I saw her zip inside the Faerie Ring‘s circle of

  grass more green than the other grass in the clearing, I

  yelled for her to stop.

  “We don’t have time to go in there,” I cried as I

  saw her dart for the edge of the ring and disappear. I’d

  never seen a pixie gnome this spooked about a meeting

  with humans and yet I had seen some unhealthy

  relationships, for sure, between the two. Fairies, though?

  I started to wonder, again, if this was a bad idea. I

  entered the fairy circle as soon as I reached it; and saw

  Blossom pacing, holding a slip of white paper in her

  hand. “We’ve an order to see the Queen,” she said.

  “But Blossom,” I protested, “we don’t have time.”

  “It’s only a few minutes wait. Look at that!” she

  pointed ahead. The butter girl, whom I’d first at the

  Meadow Glen, held the reins of an enormous, blue

  butterfly with two black dots which looked like huge,

  black eyes looking out at us from each side.

  “The Queen will see you now,” the girl said from

  atop the magnificent flutterer, her own black and white

  butterfly wings drew in and then back down again. She

  helped us climb on and handed Blossom the reins.

  “Here,” Blossom said, handing them to me, “I’ll

  bet you’ve never ridden a butterfly before, have you?” I

  laughed - it was very exciting riding on the gentle,

  winged creature whose wings, looking down from above,

  sparkled and shimmered in the sunlight with butterfly

  dust.

  “No, I haven’t,” I said timidly, “I’m not sure I

  can.” “Yes, you can,” she said, “Give it a try.”

  Then she said, “To the Queen’s!” and the wings

  lifted up almost so close they enveloped us completely

  out of sight from the others, then they strongly pressed

  down against the air; opening up and lifting us into a

  current of air. I laughed as higher and higher the

  butterfly climbed.

  “This is fun,” I said smiling at Blossom.

  “I know!” she said, “too bad we have such

  unfortunate news for the Queen.”

  “Do we?” I asked.

  “Of course!” Blossom said. Then the butterfly

  dipped and began to soar very rapidly.

  I held on tight to the reins, “Wow!” I exclaimed,

  looking down, forgetting about the words Blossom had

  just said.

  “You can see everything from up here.” I enjoyed

  the ride, then the butterfly touched down onto the

  tallest branch of the magical Yew tree. There were fairies waiting outside a pair of gold doors which opened

  outward and met in the middle with a gilded symbol

  which I recognized from Old Ireland. There were

  several birds perched nearby, watching the butterfly

  land. A faerie played upon a tiny, silver flute and the

  doors swung open.

  “Enter, please,” another fairy told us who was

  dressed as fine as the clothing Honor McGillicutty had

  sewed for me out of purple and green velvet. Then,he

  played a single not upon a harp and the doors swung

  shut, again.

  It was dark, then, the sunlight shut out by the

  doorway, all but tiny lit firefly lamps upon the walls that

  dotted the way and shone dimly toward the entrance

  where an arrow was carved into the wood above the

  words ‘Queen’s Quarters of Official Business in the

  Realm Within the Faerie Ring’.

  “Right this way,” the well-dressed wee person

  told us, and we followed. I whispered to Blossom, “I forgot, what is this about again?” She shushed me, but

  took hold of my hand and smiled with a ‘not-to

  worry’, comforting kind of expression. After several

  feet, another gold door, a single door this time, was

  opened by a faerie dressed in white and deep green of a

  trillium blossom - a sacred flower of the North Woods

  as he also played a high noted, sweet melody upon the

  tiniest, silver flute I’d yet seen.

  “Enter!” was a woman’s voice as solid and

  commanding as the wood in which we stood felt; and,

  every faerie in the room stood up at once when she said

  this, which made a sound like a quick, sudden wind in

  the barn at the McGillicutty’s, only more intense and

  proper which caused me to be nervous all at once. The

  faeries parted down the middle and I saw the Queen

  standing, a straight line from the entrance. Holding even

  tighter to the hand of Blossom, I walked with her to the

  front of the room to a white desk upon which there were

  a very many papers and many lovely thing. The Queen held out her hand and Blossom gave to her the piece of

  paper which she had carried since I arrived inside the

  Faerie

  Ring’s edge.

  “What say you?!” the Queen asked sharply, then

  looked at the paper, at us, and then with warmth added,

  “Blossom and Mr. Twinks.”

  “Humans! My lady,” Blossom said, and I gulped

  my eyes growing wide with fear. “Humans in the wood,

  past the Rise of the Hollow, near Old Soul’s tree,

  madame.”

  “What were they doing there, could you tell?

  And how many?”

  “Two, I saw two, your magic highness, and one

  carried a pail.”

  “She was gathering wild mushrooms,” I spoke up

  in defense, “and I believe she was being proposed to,” I

  offered my knowledge of Honor’s good news which

  might have been too much out of nervousness and not enough out of logic and good planning.

  “Proposed to?” the Queen asked.

  “Yes, a proposal of marriage.”

  “Ahh!” said the Queen.

  Then Blossom yanked on my hand and added,

  “Your Majesty.”

  “So, it was a happy occasion, then?”

  “Yes, your highness!” I said, “very happy.”

  Again Blossom yanked on my hand and gave me a look

  which made me wonder if we’d still be friends afterthis,

  so I said, “Maybe I should let Blossom tell it, your

  majesty, although to be fair, she did disappear into Old

  Soul’s tree while I watched.”

  “Well, that was true, my devoted Queen,”

  Blossom admitted.

  “Did you tell your father?” the Queen asked her.

  “Yes, I did madame,’ she reported.

  “Very well, then,” the Queen said, and she

  shuffled the paper Blossom had given her into the center of a stack of many others looking to be about 200 sheets

  high.

  “It is upon knowledge give to me about the youth

  and young love of humans that these two have probably

  wandered off - as some tell me human love

  is blind - only temporarily, I suppose. Perhaps they lost

  their way. Nonetheless, Blossom and Mr. Twinks, it is

  good of you to report. Nothing further then?” She

  looked at me, and then at B
lossom.

  “No, madame,” she said. I held my tongue, my

  eyes wide and fixed upon her, trying to imagine what

  either would say - what the entire roomful of fairies

  might do - if I’d told her I was planning on taking

  Blossom to tea in the household of humans and outright

  introduce her to two of them - one being the very lost,

  in-love human that had picked up a mushroom and

  tossed it into the pail at the very same rise as the

  Ellewyon’s Old Soul’s tree.

  Because I was silently guessing at they’re reaction, I didn’t pay attention to what was being said until the

  third, “Mr. Twinks?!” of the Queen’s in a new topic of

  conversation, which I’d missed out on, so far, entirely.

  Then, Blossom’s finger poked into my ribs, “O,

  yes,” I said as a question but it came out like an answer.

  “Good. Very well. We shall enjoy both of your

  company at the Faerie Ring dance of the Hunter’s Moon

  this full moon next. The Hunter’s Moon, infact,” she

  turned away from us and looked around to all the faeries

  in the room to address us all, “is named so, as its full,

  bright light - at the peak of the wild mushroom harvest

  - often allows for the hunters of wild mushrooms a

  splendid, bright light which to work from this moon.

  Understand? I therefore presume, nothing to be feared,

  here. Please alert me, Blossom,” she turned her gaze

  back upon us, solely, “if you see this human with the

  pail, again. There may be more to know about her. Mr

  Twinks?” she asked - I guessed because I was looking

  down and sad, and I wanted to tell her, right then, there was so much more to know. I wanted to tell her that

  Honor McGillicutty was warm and helpful, talented and

  lovely. I wanted to tell her I knew her name and that

  she was my friend. I wanted to tell her I’d called her

  my family whenever Blossom’d asked about my origins

  and the I’d planned to introduce them all together; but,

  thinking these things, I did not want to ‘start

  something’, not here, and I did not want us to be late to

  tea, where we were needed to tell the sometimes much

  too harsh Blithe, that Honor was free to do in thisworld

  as she liked and that Blithe’s fears must not keep Honor

  away from living to the most a much liked life - as she

  liked and more often than anyone definitely deserved.

  So, I said not a word, and I bowed to the Queen, which