Rain [Short Stories]

Alastair Moon as a Faery AU

       Honey quickly strolled down her street, her purse clutched tightly in her hands while her eyes remained on the sidewalk. The cracks and the tufts of grass and dandelions exploding through it giving her small shreds of courage as she walked on. It was a Tuesday, and the slight breeze was bringing in the rain clouds, summoning goosebumps all along Honey's arms and legs. How dare the Library keep her working this late. It had to have been at least midnight by now and she was only half-way home. Half-way home to an abusive husband...Icarus. She shuddered and not from the cold, her mind reeling at the thought of coming through her front door only to have something thrown at her, yelled at, or worse. She hated the nights where Icarus was drunk...Which was often.

       Honey wrapped her arms around herself a little tighter as a sharper breeze blew straight into her, eliciting an involuntary shiver across her body. She stopped as the sidewalk curved and brought her travels right to the edge of Bluemellow woods. She looked deep beyond the trees, sighing as she wished she could belong to it like in all the stories she's read, like the book tucked deep in her purse amongst the small bags of sweets and homemade sugared shortbread cookies. She urged herself to keep walking, steering her gaze back to the sidewalk as she adjusted her circular gold glasses farther onto her nose.

      Honey shrieked as the wind picked up, snatching her purse from her and throwing it right to the edge of the woods. How curious. She smoothed her skirts down, holding them up as she slid down the small, steep hill to retrieve her purse. But, it wasn't where the wind had thrown it. Grumbling to herself, she pulled apart bushes and peered behind trees for the darned thing, but it was nowhere to be found. She sighed, kicking at the tall grass in frustration as she looked around herself.

      "Perfect...Just perfect.." She groaned and took a breath as she looked deep into the wood, swearing she saw movement in the trees. Even curiouser. What's the harm in having just a small look around? She wrapped her hands in her skirts and stepped over and fallen tree,

      Immediately the sound of a pan flute could be heard racing high in the trees above, the cackle of some strange creature joining it. Honey's brow furrowed and immediately she knew.
       "Hey! Bring me my purse!" She threw her heels off, stomping along the moss-covered ground to follow the sound of the pan flute. It got farther and farther away, finding herself running to keep up. Her socks were wet with the dew the moss collected, making her feet squelch against it but she hardly noticed.

      "Hey, ho, where did you go? Did you wriggle or roll? Did you giggle or grumble through?" 
      Was that...Singing? Are they really mocking Honey, of all people? Honey's curly golden hair was whipped into her face by the wind, the young woman frantically pushed it out, trying to keep her gaze on the figure running through the trees on branches, jumping from tree to tree. It really was playing coy with her and how dare it.
      She stumbled to a stop as the figure danced around her in the tree branches above, raining leaves and raindrops down on her that she swatted away.
      "Give me my purse!" She demanded, though her voice shook and her fists tightened into unsure fists at her side.

      "Tom Thumb, from where did you come? Did you toggle or run? Did you skip, trip, or stumble through?" The pan flute kept playing, teasing her as the shadow of her purse danced with the figure in the trees. Their voice, though angelic and pure, did almost nothing to stop her from being very cross with this being. Her expression wavered as it stopped and peered at her, playing a quick trill on its panflute before running off again.

      "Go down! Let's go down! Let's go down! Don't you wanna go down and wriggle on? Have a sing along, put some pickles on, and play the mellotron."

      Honey stumbled into a clearing lit up by fireflies, sputtering and swatting them away from her face as she ran straight into a cloud of them. She was quickly getting over this forest. She paused as she saw her purse-snatcher, blinking to try and clear the bug wings out of her eyelashes to properly see this gorgeous albeit horrid thing.