The Misty World of Arial Hollyberry

“Summer Procession”      by David Delamare

The air was full of iridescent blue-green dragonflies and faeries whose wings  crackled with energy. They circled and dived, then circled again. The elves in the trees came out to watch the aerial display. Every so often a faerie would suddenly appear with a loud pop, sending a shower of red, orange, and yellow sparkles out in every direction. This was what I had seen coming through the trees earlier, this faerie firework display.

Suddenly, the show halted. The dragonflies landed on the tree branches all around us, reflecting the sunlight in shimmering blue-green flashes. The faeries had drifted quietly to the ground and were hovering a few inches above the ferns on either side of the path. A hush fell over the clearing. The elves had ceased their murmurings and stood in respectful silence.

Coming through trees just ahead of us was a large gleaming sphere carrying a faerie in a glittering red gown. She had hair that looked like fire, red turning to orange, turning to yellow and her crown was made up entirely of interwoven lightening bolts that were constantly flashing around her head (it reminded me of the Wizard of Oz when Glinda arrived in munchkin land, only not that big).

There were faeries gliding along the ground on either side. Their wings were tall and thin, coming to a long, point.  Glittering lights followed the intricate design of veins that detailed each wing. I realized that these were the fire faeries of summer and that the spectacular faerie in the carriage must be their queen.

The procession halted in front of Elendain, who bowed deeply as the queen emerged. The faerie queen circled her wand in the air, spreading a bright yellow light above her, growing in size until she was as tall as the mistress of  the Elvenwood.

The royal pair hugged each other in greeting. “We are honored by your presence, Litha, Queen of the fire faeries, and want to welcome you and your court to our forest. Peace be with you.” Litha’s eyes sparkled and her smile warmed her face as she continued to hold Elendain’s hands. “We come in friendship and gratitude. We are indebted to you for saving the Kind One.”

I stood watching the gracious diplomacy of the two queens feeling small and inadequate, like I had been some what of a bother. It must have shown on my face because Litha turned and approached me. She glided up to me and held me in her arms. “My dear, we were so worried about you.” She held me at arms length and looked at me, tears glistening in her eyes. “I do not know what the future would bring if anything had happened to you. You are more important than you suspect, but that is the charm of your human half.”

There it was again, the half faerie blood thing. I sure wish I knew how to use it to my advantage. “Queen Litha, all of this…” I gestured around me, “is so far over my head. I am learning of things that I had no idea existed, of places I thought belonged  only in bedtime stories.”

Litha smiled and winked at me. “It is all quite something is it not? We have a very important celebration to attend so we must be going.” She turned again to Elendain who had stepped up behind her and they hugged one final time. “Hail and farewell Queen Litha, may your journey be smooth and your nights be filled with stars.”

Litha waved her wand and a brightly woven rug appeared, hovering two feet off the ground. She motioned for me to sit on it. “A flying carpet!? I feel like I’m in one hundred and one Arabian nights!” She laughed at the analogy. “Well, why not, it is a long journey, you might as well be comfortable.” She returned to her crystal bubble and waved at Elendain. “May you only know peace and happiness, Elendain, Mistress of Elvenwood.”

With that, the entire court of fire faeries rose into the air, flying carpet, dragonflies, and all, then darted toward the west, where the sun was already beginning to set.

© Tami Ruesch, The Misty World of Arial Hollyberry, 2009.

Odette and I followed Elendain up the rope bridge to a large platform high in the tops of the gigantic evergreen forest. We burst out of the branches into bright morning sunlight that spread as far as we could see. I stopped at the end of the bridge, holding tight to the rough rope. “Is it safe up here? I mean, won’t we fall off if the wind starts to blow?” Elendain turned back to me, smiling. “My dear, we have been here since the dawn of time, no one has ever “fallen off”. Come, walk with me and I’ll show you.” She held out her hand to me. “I promise, you won’t feel even a whisper of movement.”

I took her hand and carefully stepped out onto the large, round platform. Elendain continued. “We live in harmony with nature, we respect Gaia and she respects us, the wind never blows strong in these woods. Walk to the edge and put out your hand.” I moved gingerly toward the edge, a tingling sensation of dread crawling up my spine. Stopping about five feet back, I held out my hand toward empty space.

Elendain glided up behind me. “That’s right, keep going. Hold your hand out in front of you, yes, that’s right.” I nervously inched my way closer to the edge of the platform. Two feet to go and my hand hit something. My eyes told me that there was nothing there, but my touch said there was a wall in front of me. With my eyes wide and my mouth hanging open, I took a few more steps closer and put both hands out, palms forward, and mimed  my way around the entire platform. “It’s an invisible wall!”

Elendain motioned for me to return to her side. “There are charms all through the elvenwood. This great hall is where we hold all of our celebrations and we prefer to be as close as we can to the heavens. That is why we charmed the ceiling and walls to be invisible. Odette was giggling under her breath, with a mischievous look on her face she darted toward the edge. At the last moment, before she could leap out into the blue sky, she turned her body and smashed, shoulder first into the invisible wall.

“Oh, Odette don’t…”. She rolled on the floor at my feet laughing hysterically. “Ah missus, these inviseeble walls mess with yer brain they do. Lettin ya think yer gona fall.”  Elendain was laughing too. I turned toward her with a mock look of exasperation. “Don’t encourage her.” I tried to keep my voice stern but it’s hard not to laugh when everybody around you is laughing.

Somewhere below a flute played. Elendain turned toward the east. “Your escort is arriving.” In the distance I could see bright flashes of red, orange and yellow all through the dark green of the trees, it looked like tiny  fireworks moving toward us.

As we made our way down, dropping once more into the  shelter of the evergreen boughs, I had a thought. “Elendain? If there are charms all through these woods, how did a troll find you? When Arial and the emerald guard helped me get home through the woods by the faerie palace, they kept throwing little silver orbs into the bushes at the side of the road. They said that it made the path invisible to the trolls and since they couldn’t see the road, they would wander off in another direction.”

A shadow of doubt played across Elendain’s face. Her eyes darkened the way Lilly’s did the day Lucy and I walked down the street in front of the little white house. Elendain’s voice pulled me back from my musings. “Yes, that is a good question, and one I will be looking into, but for now…” She stopped at the bottom of the tree and stepped to one side to let me pass in front of her. “Your escort is here.”

I looked up, flying toward us through the lingering mist on the forest floor, came hundreds of  faeries riding on fireflies.

© Tami Ruesch, The Misty World of Arial Hollyberry, 2009.

I landed face down in a bed of thick damp moss, two seconds later, Odette landed right beside me. With the smell of ozone still heavy in my nostrils, I rolled over and sat up. The last of the light was leaving the sky and the forest  was becoming increasingly dark.

Odette stood beside me pulling bits of leaves and moss out of her hair. “An what would ya be thinkin just happened?” She seemed to be very calm, given the fact that we were just magically transported who knows where. Now that I had a chance to pull myself together, I didn’t seem to be all that worried either, I had some bumps and scratches, but that was it.

I picked Odette up and put her on my lap. “I think that there was some sort of negative effect when the energy beams from the two wands crossed, and we got caught in the middle of it.” The underbrush rustled violently to the side of us. “Shh! I put my fingers over Odette’s mouth. “Somethings coming.”

I got quietly to my knees and crawled into a stand of tall ferns, signaling Odette to follow, then pulled the fronds up behind us. Twenty feet away, two young Centaurs crashed into the clearing, jumping wildly and butting their heads together as they took turns using defensive moves.

They shoved and pushed their way closer to us, unaware that we were watching. When they were just feet away they suddenly stopped and turned  in our direction, sensing our presence.  Odette and I sat frozen in place.

Odette opened her mouth to say something but I quickly put one finger to my lips to signal her to keep quiet. The centaurs started pushing through the undergrowth, working in opposite directions around the clearing. Before they could complete the circle back to where we hid, a horn sounded, high and thin. They snorted and bounded off through the trees, leaving us alone in the forest.

I released the breath I had been holding. “I thought they would find us for sure.  Do you think they were friendly?” My nerves were frayed, reality was setting in, we were alone in the forest and no one knew where we were or how to find us.

“There there dear, that’s what I’ve been tryin to tell ya, centaurs are faerie friendly, I’ve known em to help all the different faeries. Chances are, the faeries have called all the forest dwellers ta gether ta help find ya.”

The light in the sky was almost gone now and I was starting to shiver. We had landed in very damp moss and my clothes were soaked through. “Odette, I’m getting cold and I don’t think we had better stay here any longer. Lets find some place where we can get warm.” When I stood up a sharp pain shot through my knee. I muffled a groan.

Odette peered at me through the growing darkness. “You okay missus?” I crouched down to pick her up and another pain coursed through my knee, I bit back an exclamation. “Yes, I’m fine, just sore from the landing I guess.” I needed to change the subject. “If the centaurs are friendly maybe we should go the way they went.” I pointed across the clearing. “Over there, between those two trees, see, we can walk where they trampled through the underbrush.

We started across the clearing. Bruised from the fall, and with my knee constantly reminding me that there was some wrong with it, I worried that I wouldn’t be able to walk very far.  I looked around to find a stick that I could use as a cane. I couldn’t see anything, the forest was completely  submerged in darkness now. Discouraged, I sat down with my back against a gigantic tree, tears welling up in my eyes.

Odette climbed up my arm and with the edge of her apron, wiped the tears away. “Here now missus, no need for them tears, things will work out, you’ll see.” She sat down on my shoulder. It reminded me of the way Arial would sit and braid my hair while talking to me and the tears started again.

“Odette, it’s pitch dark now, I can’t see two feet in front of me, I’m cold, and my knee hurts. I’m having a very hard time seeing how things will be okay.”

Odette thought for a minute. “Do ya have the crystal that the queen of the frost faeries gave ya?” I used the sleeve of my shirt to wipe my eyes. “Yes, I keep it in a pouch around my neck, why?” Odette jumped up, slid down my arm and looked up at me. “What did the queen tell ya about it? Think back.”

The memory of the little faerie queen came back to me. She was holding out a crystal she had taken from her crown. She put it in my hand and said…”a crystal that will be a source of light and comfort for you in the dark times.”

“Odette, that’s it! The crystal, it glows!” I  grabbed the little pouch that hung around my neck and opened it. The crystal was glowing softly. I was so relieved that I almost laughed out loud. “It doesn’t glow very bright though.” I let Odette look in the little pouch. “Yes, but I’ll be thinkin that ya should hold it up, have a see what it’ll do.”

I took it out of the bag and held it in my hand. The light pulsed for a minute then the crystal began to quiver. I held it up to the night sky and it suddenly burst into sparkling white light.

Tears rushed from my eyes, but this time they were tears of relief.

© Tami Ruesch, The Misty World of Arial Hollyberry, 2009.