Farie Sent
Amalthya smiled at her friend the young boy. "Are you certain you wish me to tell this tale now? It is a long one."
He nodded eagerly, his eyes lighting up with delight.
She laughed, he loved to hear her tell stories as much as she had loved hearing them as a child.
"Very well then, come sit with me by the fire, and I shall tell you as I was told long ago."
They made themselves comfortable, she leaning against a tree, he with his head in her lap. She stroked his forehead and gazed into the fire, it's crackle the only sound they heard, as if the woods were preparing to listen to the recounting of the tale as well.
She gathered her thoughts and began to speak.
"It is said that once long ago before the times of humans, or even Elves, there were creatures that walked the Realms. These creatures were called Dryads, Sylphs, Satyrs, Nymphs and Faeries. They were beautiful with a fierce unnamable loveliness. They lived and played with the beasts in the forest that covered the land. It is not known from whence they came, though many believe they sprung from the very land itself, imbued with a magic unheard of since thier time."
He looked up into her eyes smiling with rapt attention.
She returned the smile and continued.
"The Elves were first to be born after them, and the Faeries were delighted to teach them of the forest and of magics. The elves named them the Fair Folk, thinking of them as elder brothers and sisters. They learned much from them, but did not seek them out for they knew that the Faeries were of the wild.
Then came the humans. At the first, they found the humans to be playmates of a sort, they would send them on merry chases through the woods or leave feasts for them where none should be found.
The humans in time grew tired of these games and coveted thier beauty and gifts for themselves. They discovered the secret of iron, the only substance that could harm the Fair Folk. They began to hunt and trap them."
He gasped, a look of sadness passed over his features as she described the burning pain of the iron, the utter loss when one of the Fair Folk died because they were not born, and so once gone they were never to be replaced.
Amalthya moved a lock of his hair from his eyes and went on with the tale.
"It was a time of great sadness and anger. The threat of the humans and their cold iron became so great that the Eldest of the Fair Folk called a council of all of thier people. It was decided that they would work a great magic removing themselves from the realms in which humans walked."
Now his look became skeptical, and she grinned before returning to the tone of the story.
"The magic to do this thing was great indeed, it would drain them all for centuries. Leaving them without their magics and in a deep sleep in the new place for nearly an age."
He nodded sleepy and satisfied and let her continue.
"It was done, they moved themselves to a place that exists in a sense beside our world, like it but not part of it. Some after their awakening missed the Elves and the kinder more gentle humans like us, the Druids, for there were none but the Fair Folk in the woods of this beside place, and they pined for a return to the realms.
One day a Faerie ring was discovered in the land they now called thier own.
Drawn by a power she felt there, an adventurous Dryad stepped into it and found that she was able to manifest herself in a duplicate ring in the world they had left behind. The others that wished to walk the realms again sought out more of the rings and would oft gather to manifest and dance under the moon of the place of their beginning. They became the spirits of the wood, fleeting visions of beauty and untamable grace."
She paused with a smile of enchantment. He tickled her lightly to convince her to continue.
"There were those that longed for more than these brief visits. After a time there were other rings found, some that encircled trees or small pools of water in the realms."
He looked up at her and pointed to the ringed tree across the glade. She nodded smiling.
"The Fair Folk were pleased to find that one of thier number could manifest in these and merge with the tree or pool in the ring. They left behind a fragment of thier essence and took with them a fragment of the essence of the thing merged with, tying themselves to it for all time and thus enabling them to cross worlds at will. Very few of the Fair folk would do this thing for if the tree died, or the pool dried up, they lost that fragment of themselves forever. Only those with a great love for the realms would do so, and so places with such a ring round a tree are considered blessed by thier presence by some, haunted by others."
She stared briefly at the tree. He noticed her momentary unease and frowned. Amalthya laughed.
"I was told this tale because I near fell asleep in a ring once. Indeed I slept in that very one not long ago... I had a dream... Anyway, the tale finishes thusly,
The saying goes that if a person sleeps in one of the Faerie rings under the light of the full moon, they can be whisked away to the beside place, some never to return, others to be changed forever in some way.
And still, to this day, on quiet nights lit by the full of the moon, the spirits of the wood can be seen dancing in the rings."
He laughed and dared her to sleep in the ring at the end of the tale. She grinned and agreed, after all, it was only a story. She settled to sleep, only dimly aware that the moon was full that night.
She dreamt...
She woke the next morning confused, the scent of the air was wrong. She could not hear her friend moving about the camp. He always woke first. She sat up and took in her surroundings. Amalthya gasped, before her was a land unknown to her. She heard laughter all around her..
"Make a new life brave foolish Druid, you can not go back. Didn't anyone ever warn you not to sleep in a Faerie ring by the light of the full moon?"
The laughing voice held no malice, and Amalthya had little but her friend to hold her to the world now lost to her. She thought a moment about him and smiled, he would do fine, she had taught him all she could.
She looked around the meadow, so unlike her glade and laughed.... A new life awaited.
