Fae-Touched

The little girl with bouncing curls heard music in the nearby trees. Pretty blue eyes peered toward her mother and, upon seeing her busy harvesting plants, snuck off to investigate. Truly she knew better but the music was too tempting and too mysterious to ignore!

One more glance back then she was in the tree cover, eyes wide with wonder. It sounded as though the music moved at will; first off to her left, then the right and finally straight ahead. As she looked around the odd drop of dew seemed to sparkle and she swore a patch of wildflowers had just turned their yellow faces up toward the warm sunshine. She yearned to go and touch them to see if they were indeed real but the music played still and she heeded its call.

After what seemed like ages of walking (though she never tired) the music lured her to a clearing. Sunshine filtered through the trees’ canopy perfectly, everything looked greener and more alive, and though it softened the melody continued. While she explored the pretty clearing the girl heard an occasional soft giggle and low laugh and when a little fairy popped out of nowhere right in front of her face the little girl gasped, eyes wide, and covered her mouth with her hands. Nothing was said; there was only a gesture from the fairy for the girl to follow her, purple wings sheer and glittering in the sun. The girl did as bade and followed in her little guide’s path further into the clearing and suddenly the music was much louder and more exuberant.

Another gasp escaped her and the little fairy clapped her hands and laughed as the other fae were now visible to the girl. There was dancers twirling and leaping in time to the music (some air-born, others on the ground), others off to the sides and chattering in bell-like voices. Once she was over the shock of things the girl finally giggled and suddenly she was surrounded by some of the lovely creatures, spinning to the music now, herself.

The little girl felt nothing but joy as they spun and pranced, stopping occasionally to rest, and the fairies brought her food and drink to refresh her. Though she could not understand the chiming voices she still liked listening and once content and rested she stood and the dancers were off again.

It wasn’t until long after night fell that one of the luminescent fairies led the little girl, now tired, back through the trees toward where she had originally snuck. Dimly the girl was aware of voices calling, some worried, but it was her mother’s clear voice that cut through the grogginess. The little fairy touched the girl’s cheek with a whispered word then flew off as the woman raced to sweep up her daughter with a cry of joy and hugged her close. The girl snuggled into her mother’s arms and yawned, head resting to her shoulder as if nothing had happened and she hadn’t disappeared. Her mother turned and headed back home with the others who had joined in looking for the child, sure and content in knowing all was well again.

Over the following days and weeks when the mother watched the girl she noticed there seemed to be an added sparkle to pretty blue eyes and almost a glow around her little body. A few times she had seen her whisper and talk to something the woman couldn’t quite see and she had suspicions it had something to do with the day she had disappeared for a number of hours. Often the mother’s eyes wandered to the trees in thought; there had long been stories of something odd in the nearby forest but no one ever said what. Some thought it haunted, others thought the trees to be home to fae creatures and still some figured it to be nothing more than overactive imaginations. Whenever she would try and ask her daughter about it the little girl would smile and shrug, eyes glittering briefly, then she would turn and skip away.

It wasn’t until years later that the girl, turned a young woman with sylph-like beauty, finally pulled her mother aside one day and whispered to her about that one day. It was with joy and awe that she spoke and her mother listened, amazed with the clarity the story was told with; it was like it had been just the other day for her daughter. Finally the young woman urged her mother to go with her to see the little fairies and experience them herself and, after much pleading, relented and allowed herself to be pulled into the trees.

Upon reaching the clearing the woman’s daughter stepped forward and called softly with words she didn’t recognize while she held back, suddenly unsure. When nothing seemed to happen the mother frowned and hesitantly stepped forward then paused again when her daughter’s hand lifted as if to catch the little spark of light that had suddenly appeared. It was a puzzling moment for her, eyes narrowing as she tried to make out the little speck and when her daughter turned and presented it to her, the woman gasped upon seeing the dainty being amidst the soft light. All at once the clearing seemed to fill with music and other fairies, each taking a turn in spinning around her daughter.

Now the woman understood the added sparkle to pretty eyes and the glow around the young woman’s frame that she had witnessed a number of times over the years; she had been fae-touched and befriended by the fairies! A number of other events from the past seemed suddenly so clear, as well; their crops had been oddly profitable and the two of them hadn’t seemed to want for anything despite it being only herself and her daughter living on the small farm. Her husband had passed away when the girl had been a baby and no other man had sought out her hand so she had tended to things the best she could, even if they had struggled a time or two.

Tears wet her cheeks and her daughter looked up and smiled to her, walking up to catch her hands and draw her further into the clearing and the fairy ring. The tiny specks of light grew clearer to the older woman’s eyes and she finally laughed when a string of fairies circled around her before darting off again.
“They want us to stay,” the girl whispered, eagerness in her voice. For the first time the mother noticed the sweet, bell-like quality to her daughter’s voice and she could only nod. After all, who wouldn’t want to live and dance with the fairies?

It was only a day or so later when the other villagers noticed the little cabin the woman and her daughter lived in was unusually quiet. When a few men went to investigate they found nothing out of place but there was also no sign of either person. Baffled, all they could do was stare at each other and finally shrug, unsure of what had happened to them. They left everything undisturbed in case they returned from wherever they had gone and when they were returning to their own homes each man heard what sounded like music coming from the forest.

The men turned as one to eye the forest warily and when they made out what looked to be faint glimmers and glowing within the depths they paled and hurried back to their homes, securing doors behind them. For all they knew it could have been spirits at play or on the hunt for unsuspecting souls and lure to their deaths. Had they but waited a moment or two more they would have caught sight of the mother (appearing much younger and less haggard) and daughter cavorting through the trees with the fairies.

The two never did return home but their little cabin remained the same, if only because it had been built so close to the forest which now was thought to truly be haunted. After a number of years the woman and her daughter were little more than a story that was told to children at bedtime to warn them of the tricky fae.