Journeys

Journey 3: A Fairy Story

Journey 3: A Fairy Story

     Today as my dearest love and I were gardening in the small flowerbed in the back yard of a house on fairyville road, we were magically whisked away to the land of the fairies. The delicate little people graciously greeted us and bade us welcome to their land. We must have been shrunk, for the fairies were no smaller than we.  They invited us to the court of their king and queen which was not far off, and we accepted their invitation thankfully.  The fairies then supplied us with the most delicate wings ever made, and we flew with our escort of the magical folk to the court of the king and queen of the fairies. On the way, we stopped at the home of one of the fairy escorts, who graciously offered to give us new clothes, in order to make ourselves fresh and presentable to the king and his queen. Then we flew a very short distance to the palace of the king and queen fairies.

        Soon castle was in view.  It was tall, majestic, and slightly forboding.  As soon as we were noticed, a small page fairy was sent to inform the king and queen of our arrival. When he reappeared, we were suprised to find out that the royal couple wished to see us immediately. We were led through the halls and passages of the palace until we reached the throne room. There, seated on a dais, were the monarchs of the fairies. We were brought right up to the foot of the dais and introduced to them. They were kind and gracious and welcomed us to their court.

       After polite inquires and other such pleasantries, we asked the question which was most important to us. How are we to get back home?  For even though we were enjoying our stay in the land of fairies, we did not belong there. To our horror and dismay, the king told us that the only way that they knew of was to pass through a magic door, but that no one was certain it even existed.  

      Legend told of the magic door being far away at the end of the mushroom forest, but no one dared to go there, for it was said that there were terrible monsters and outlaws inside the dark and forboding forest.  Nevertheless pass through it we must, and all the important fairies offered us gifts for our aid. We were allowed to keep the wings that we had been given, and were provided with provisions that were light and easy to carry, but still sustaining and strengthening. Our other gifts consisted of: a map of the forest with all the most dangerous spots marked carefully out, a compass to guide us, and a special magic torch that did not smoke or burn out and which could be dimmed or lit by a word of command.

      We were allowed to sleep that night in the palace and would set out early next morning for the mushroom forest, much to the dismay of the queen who seemed to like company. We were up before the sun the next day and started immediately after breakfast. We reached the forest at nine o'clock that morning, where we rested for a half hour before entering. Then we said goodbye to the fairy who had acted as our guide through the inhabited regions of fairyland, and plunged into the dark mustiness of the mushroom forest.

      The further we ventures into it the more we felt that, if we stopped moving, we would become moldy and begin to rot and decay. We ate and drank nothing we found there, for we had been warned before that if we did so we would become deathly sick. We journeyed all day until we came to the one place that was green with grass and was moonlit, for by now it was nearly ten o'clock at night.  We knew it was a safe place for the map clearly stated it as so, and the king had specifically mentioned the spot as a good place to break our journey. There we rested and slept for the night, safe from harm.  

      When we woke the next morning, stiff from sleeping on the ground and wet with dew, we ate a quick breakfast, and immediately set out again using the compass and map for guidance. As the day wore on, we grew more and more uneasy, for the map indicated that we were passing between two places highly populated with evil beings. However, we came to no harm.  The biggest fright we received was a sound of heavy stomping in the distance, but we neither saw nor heard anything else.  By noon of that day, we thought we perceived some light in the forest ahead, and by three o'clock we were certain of it. By the time the sun had almost surrendered her reign to the moon, we were out of that abominable forest. We only had to journey a short distance and we would be at the door. We spent the night again under the stars and awoke early the next morning. After a short walk, we saw a great cliff looming up ahead and to all sides of us. When we were quite close to it, we saw that the magic door was in the cliff straight ahead of us. It was ordinary size for a fairy, unadorned and seemed to be made of wood, not at all what we had been expecting. We walked up to it and tried the handle, it was unlocked. The entryway it led to was pitch black, once you were in there was no telling what might happen. We both felt that our gifts given to us by the fairies shouldn't be taken past this door, so we laid them gently down, a little to the right of the door.

     We stood a full minuet in the doorway before my dearest love stooped, kissed me, picked me up, and walked through the door, carring me gently. Instantly we found ourselves back in the garden of a house on fairyville road, my true love still holding me in his arms.