Stories Big And Small

Caught

A/n: first meeting one shot/flash fiction based on a picture I drew of a cute lil sapphic fairy-human couple
Cw: cursing, light unintentional fearplay

Don't go into that valley in the summer. There's too many humans there.

That's what I had always heard growing up. From my mother. My father. My grandfather. The elders in the village. Really anyone who knew anything.
So where had I decided to end up this particular hot, July afternoon?

In the valley.

It really hadn't been intentional. I'd been looking for obsidian, and "one rock formation over" had managed to turn into two, and then three, and then the next thing I knew, a little building was in sight through the trees. Beyond it, bright colors speckled the otherwise green forest. Tents - the makeshift shelters humans liked to dwell in when they came out here. It hit me all at once just how far I'd gone, and I cursed under my breath.

I landed softly on the rocky riverbed across from the tents, trying to decide what the best move was. It seemed like sheer luck I'd been able to get this close without being spotted. I could try to fly back the way I came-

"What the fuck..."

My blood ran cold as I heard the soft whisper come from behind me. I started to turn around. I already knew what I would see. And sure enough, a few feet behind me, gawking at me with wide eyes, was a human. They were even bigger up close. Because of course they were. My previous thought process of developing a plan was gone in an instant. I just needed to get out of here now. I pushed off from the ground, flapping my wings. I had barely lifted off when a shadow flashed over me, followed by a transparent blue wall.

It closed down around me so quickly that I didn't have time to stop, let alone change directions to avoid it. I slammed into the wall, and fell backwards. At the same time, another blue wall seemed to come up to meet me - I was surrounded in a tunnel of the transparent blue. Almost. There was a circular opening just a few body lengths from me. The tunnel wasn't tall enough for me to stand in, nor fly in, but if I could just crawl over to it-

My heart sank for the second time that day as some sort of disk slid in front of the opening. It was also blue, but much darker and opaque. The tunnel I was in jostled slightly as the entrance was sealed. My heart racing, I looked up to see the face of my captor looming over me.

She couldn't have been much older than me - a young adult, assuming humans aged similarly. Her brown eyes were wide with a mixture of confusion and awe as she stared down at me. Her dirty blond hair was pulled into two braids, and a light spattering of freckles dotted her nose and cheeks. In any other circumstances, I probably would have thought she was quite pretty. Currently, though, I was much more concerned about how I'd just been discovered - and caught - by a human.

"What-what are you?" she asked.