The Misty World of Arial Hollyberry

Something was wrong! I didn’t know what it was, but my heart started doing a Gene Krupa drum solo in my chest and my breathing stopped, then started with a squeak. I thought I was having a heart attack. Men my age have them, you know, but I’ve learned the warning signs of a heart attack and this wasn’t it, nor was it a stroke. I think it was a panic attack. I was panicked but without a cause. Doesn’t that seem odd?

I was looking out the kitchen window at the ivy covered back fence. I stood there shaking and grasping the sink until my physical sensations settled down. That’s when I saw it. There was a beam of light like laser pointers, only it was an icky green instead of red. It was aimed at the ivy near the round outdoor thermometer. I couldn’t tell where it was coming from. My best guess was across the street, but lasers pointed at the moon 238.000 miles away have illuminated spots that were seen from earth. If this was a laser its source could be anywhere there was a direct line of sight.

As I watched the green pinpoint started to grow and the ivy leaves scorched where it touched. I was shocked but fascinated. I had never seen anything like this and I wondered what I should do. If it grew any bigger it could cause some real damage. What if it shifted from the fence to the house? That’s when I got scared. We had to get out. We had to let someone know that our fence was under attack by, by what?

I didn’t know but I didn’t want to wait any longer to find out. I went rushing through the house yelling for my wife, but she didn’t answer. I didn’t know she was out, but she sure wasn’t in. I grabbed for the dogs who were yapping like a pack of idiots because they didn’t know what was going on. Better to yap than to be caught unprepared. The silly things ran away from me every time I tried to pick them up. I had to herd them into a couple of kennels so I could carry them out to the car. You’d think a four pound dog couldn’t put up much of a fuss, but they can. I don’t know if they were reacting to my fright or if they sensed something wrong too. They were bumping, and thumping against the sides of the kennel so hard that I could barely hold on to them. The handles on top were straining and I was afraid that they might break and they’d tumble down the stairs kennels and all. I was lucky, no breaks.

We reached the back door when I heard something strange above the caterwauling of the dogs. I know, dogs don’t caterwaul, but these three were coming very close to disproving that belief. It was loud, and obnoxious, and high pitched. I didn’t think I could hear a bomb go off in the din they created. But I heard something. It sounded like a woman shouting at me, “Mr. Bill, Mr. Bill don’t go away and forget us! We’re scared too.”

“Wha?”

It must have been the ringing in my ears and my overactive imagination. “Nah,” I thought, “I didn’t hear anything.”

Then just as I turned back to the door again, I heard it again, “Mr. Bill, don’t you dare leave this house without us!”

I turned around and there standing just outside of the kitchen were two little people only six inches tall. My eyes bugged out. I dropped the kennels, which caused the dogs to get louder if that was even possible, and I fell down hard on my butt. “Oh great,” I thought, “Here I am running around the house like a crazy person, scaring the wits out of our dogs, and the truth is I’ve gone around the bend to the funny farm and climbed the slippery basket-weaver’s tree.”

The little folk took this chance with me seated on the ground to run up my legs, scramble up my shirt and perch on my shoulder. The female said, “Hurry, we have to go. There is going to be a breach in the portal and we can’t be here when it happens.”

I didn’t move. The male of the pair slapped my ear and yelled, “Get up, yer big lug — we don’t have time for yer amazement. You can be amazed later — right now we gotta go.” With that he yanked the hair at the nape of my neck and screamed, “Go, go, go!”

So I did. Luckily the car door opened easily. In went the kennels. The tiny folks scrambled from my shoulders on to the front seat beside me. I jerked the door closed and backed the car down the drive. There wasn’t a moment to lose, I turned and shot down the street. Car, kennels, little guys and me, rushing headlong into the darkness. I glanced over at the little man and woman struggling to get under the broad seat belt and started to think. Were these the gnomes that lived under our sink? My wife said they were there, but I had never seen them. Not until today that is. What else has she been talking about that seemed too fanciful to be believed — fairies, shape shifters, and centaurs? What if it was all true? What if? The thought made my stomach queasy. I didn’t want to think about it anymore. Besides I had better figure out where we were going and what we were going to do once we got there.

© Tami Ruesch, The Misty World of Arial Hollyberry, 2009-2010

Why is Bill surprised? Visit “Real Men Don’t See Faeries”

Be sure to check out the post “What Lurks in the Dark Wood?” to catch up on the action

Related posts: “At the Request of the Queen”

The glow from the faerie crystal was bright enough to light the entire clearing. Now that we could see, Odette started pulling at my leg, trying to find out what had happened to my knee. “Missus…” She struggled with my pants leg. “Missus, a little help please. Lets be having a look at yer leg. Can’t be walkin around with a pain. C’mon, lets see.”

Holding the crystal up with one hand I helped her push the leg of my jeans up with the other until my knee was uncovered. “I’m telling you that it was just the fall.” She glowered at me. “Bruises don’t make pains, now shush and let me look.”

All I saw was a red spot about an inch in diameter. “See? Just a bruise.” Odette looked closer. “No, there’s somethin stuck in your knee, a quill I think, see, just there. It isn’t very long, I’ll pull it out.”  She grabbed onto the end of the barb. As soon as her fingers closed around it, it sprouted tiny wings and started to wiggle deeper into my knee. “Ouch! Odette stop! It’s going deeper.”

Odette scratched her head. “It looks like Night Nettle, the barbs have a poison that will paralyze anything they touch. The goblins use it as a trap to catch small animals for their dinner.” She turned and looked back at the stand of ferns we had crawled into. “You must have crawled into a patch when we hid.”

She was right, my knee was starting to go numb. ” Never mind how I got stuck, we have to get the thing out, now, before I’m completely paralyzed!” Scared now that I would never get home, that goblins would make a meal out of me instead, I watched Odette start crawling around the tree we were sitting under, mumbling something to herself. “I can’t hear you with your face buried in the bushes Odette.” She looked up. “Sorry about that, I was saying there is a special moss that grows in these woods, and when placed around the nettle causes it to back out on its own. I’m afraid that’s the only way to get it out.”

The trees and underbrush started swimming around me. “Hey Odette?” Odette was digging around the tree again and looked up at me. “Hum?” I felt like I was falling from a great height, even though I knew I was sitting on the ground. “Does this Night Nettle stuff have any other effect?” She jumped up and waddled quickly over to me, worry flooding her face.

What I saw coming toward me instead, in slow motion, was a huge hairy bird. That’s funny I thought, I didn’t know birds had hair, then I was floating on a leaf in the middle of pond. “I feel so peaceful, I think I’ll take a little nap.” Odette shook me. “Oh no, missus, no, don’t go to sleep!”

A storm came up suddenly, the leaf I was lying on started to pitch back and forth. I heard myself speaking from a distance, “I don’t have a paddle! The leaf is going to sink!” I grabbed onto the edges and curled them around me to try and stay afloat.

Odette is only three inches tall but she had no problem giving orders to the centaurs. “Do be careful, Watch it! You’re going to tip her over.” The centaur looked back at her and sneered. “It would be no problem smooshing you with my hoof little one!”  He lifted his front hoof in a threatening manor.

“Serg!” The tall graceful woman stepped away from the centaur and moved back to check the cart.  “Do remember your instructions: find the Kind One, bring her back. That’s it. I don’t remember anything about “smooshing”.

“It is lucky we found you before the goblins did! You could see the faerie glow miles away.”  Elendain reached over and tweaked Odette’s nose and chuckled under her breath. “Don’t mind Serg, he just doesn’t like pulling the cart and he is a little grouchy.” Serg hoofed the ground. “I didn’t plan on being treated like a pack mule!”

“But he is moving to fast! He will tip the misses out.” Odette paced back and forth along the edge of the cart. Serg growled something under his breath and Elendain patted his haunches to settle him down. “She will be fine, but we must hurry and get her to the Elvenwood before she is paralyzed. I have some rose-moss that will treat the wound.

The storm passed and the pond grew smooth. I let go of the edges of the leaf and floated toward a pale moon that was just setting on the far edge of the water. The leaf began to swirl around and around, rocking as it went.

Elendain signaled to six slender elven men to help carry the sling holding the human up the rope bridge to her quarters and placed her on the downy bed. Odette watched as Elendain mixed  rose-moss and dewdrops, then helped her spread the poultice around the night nettle quill, covering it completely.

“How long will it take?” Odette had settled herself to one side, intending to wait all night if need be. Elendain smiled, “You are a true friend indeed, but do not despair, the Kind One will be fine. It won’t take long and she won’t remember very much at all.”

The leaf came to rest on the far shore of the pond where a bed of large white flowers were growing. I laid there, looking at the stars and wondered where Odette was.

© 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.