We have no classes on Wednesday afternoon, so we decide to ride out to investigate the supposed faerie nest that day. The journey is slow, because Gilbert is unaccustomed to riding (not to mention slightly scared of the pony) and refuses to ride very fast. Alica is leading the way, being the only one of us who knows exactly where we're going - I have heard stories of the sometimes wild things students get up to in the woods, but I've never personally attended any of them. Alica has, apparently, but refuses to tell us exactly what kind of 'party' it was.
"Are we there soon," Gilbert asks, not for the first time. "I'm not sure how much longer I can ride this thing."
"Relax, love, just a few more minutes," Alica says, carefree as always. "We should be able to see the edge of the clearing soon."
Gil grumbles a little under his breath and I push down a laugh. His pony snorts and shakes its head and Gil freezes for a moment, but the pony does nothing more, so he relaxes slightly. Very slightly.
"Oh, there it is, just up ahead," Alica says, pointing at the distinct lack of trees some ten meters in front of us.
We get to the clearing and dismount, tying the reins of the ponies to some trees. Gil side eyes his pony warily as I tie it to the tree, but the pony is utterly uninterested. I clap him on the shoulder as I walk past and he snaps out of it.
The clearing is surprisingly big, a good twenty meters in diameter, a few flowers sprouting in the midst of the light green grass and patches of hay. There is a tree, slightly off the side, which indeed sticks out like a sore thumb. We walk towards it.
"It's not exactly in the middle..." I say. Alica shrugs. "But I have to say, those leaves are way too green for the middle of May."
I pluck out one the leaves and inspect it. It seems like a perfectly normal leaf and I wouldn't give it a second thought if it weren't for the peculiar circumstances. It is, of course, perfectly possible that the reason the tree has grown so much faster is perfectly natural, perhaps because of the spot, maybe the soil is good or it gets more sunlight because it's more in the middle and doesn't have to compete with the other trees, but still... I just can't shake the feeling that there is something more to this tree. There has to be...
"Okay, that's kinda weird," Gil says from next to me, breaking my concentration. I look at him, but he's looking at the ground. "Do mushrooms normally grow so... evenly?"
"Mushrooms?" I say and look down. My eyes widen. There is a perfectly round line of small mushrooms circling the tree 30 centimeters from it. This is....
"Is that a faerie ring?" Alica asks and I can't speak. I'm too excited. The probability of there really being actual faeries here just skyrocketed. I'm probably grinning like a madman as I kneel down in front of the mushrooms. There is something small and glittery on one of them and I pick it up. Both Alica and Gil peer closer at the sparkling on the palm of my hand.
"What the hell is that?" Gil whispers. Alica's mouth is hanging open.
"That, my dearest friends, is tiny hair," I say, my eyes wide. "From actual tiny faeries."
"Γαμώτο..."
"Language, Lis," I say and Alica slaps my arm.
"This is unbelievable," Gil says. "I mean, you're telling me there actually is a faerie nest in this tree?"
"Seems like the most likely explanation," I say. "Unless you know of something else that leaves behind hair this small and shiny."
"What do we do now? Do we try to find them? Or just let them be? I mean, that kinda proves they are here, right?" Alica asks, and I consider it for a moment.
"We got proof already, do we really want to press our luck?" Gil says, hand grabbing onto the sleeve of my school uniform. He's incredibly tense again. "They might get pissed if they think we're trying to invade their home."
"You're probably right," I say after a while, putting the hair onto a small piece of parchment and folding it up, and can feel Gil deflate next to me. "We should head back."
"Whaaat, I wanted to see faeries!" Alica complains but comes willingly when we move to leave. Gil squints at the pony before he gets on but he's clearly more afraid of a faerie curse than the pony, so he doesn't say anything.
As we're leaving I get a sudden sense of being watched and I glance one more time at the tree. There seems to be some kind of small figures in the leaves but they're gone as quickly as they appeared and on the way back I could swear to gods the trees were waving at us.
____________________________________________________________________
Hey ho, here you go! Oh look, I rhymed.
I didn't really know what to do with this topic but I think this turned out ok. You know, it's really annoying how I have to wait for two days to get a followup and then two more days until I can write more.... But I guess it's better this way, writing every other day takes a lot of energy.
I have a vague sense of where this is going... Do you?
Your topic isssss........ Books.
Don't think I had anything else, so bye.
Pie out.
P.S. If you plan for the next bit to be after Friday let me know.
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