Short Story: Don't Go Hunting Fairy Rings by Alice Elizabeth

Mother told me not to go all the way to the end of the garden path. I was to go as far as the big tree on the left, the one that had the big knot in its trunk that looks like a man’s face. When I reached that tree I was to turn around and come back.

I didn’t listen to Mother.

Aunt Izzy said Mother is just being sensible and it’s for my own good. Aunt Izzy said that next time she visits she would come with me and we would be allowed to go past the tree with the man’s face. She said that maybe we would even find a fairy ring out there.

I didn’t wait until Aunt Izzy’s next visit.

Now the King is saying I have to complete his quest before I can go home again. That’s why I started to get scared. Then I started crying. I told the King “I don’t want to complete a quest, I just want to go home!”

“Then why didn’t you stay at home in the first place, instead of coming bumbling your way into my kingdom, disrupting the peace?”

“I’m sorry, I just wanted to see a fairy ring,” I said. “Aunt Izzy said there might be a fairy ring on the other side of the tree and I wanted to see what one looked like.”

“And I suppose that Aunt Izzy forgot to tell you that if you find a fairy ring, and if you enter a fairy ring, you enter my kingdom. Once you are in my kingdom you stay here until I say you can leave,” the King declared.

“But no one knows I’m here! My mother will be worried when I don’t come home soon.” I was going to be in such terrible trouble when she found out.

“Don’t worry about Mother,” the King said. “That’s all taken care of.” He waved his hand and one of his servants picked up and carried a mirror over to the King. He turned the mirror so that I could see into it. It wasn’t actually a mirror, because I couldn’t see my reflection in it, but I could see myself in there. I watched as I sat at the kitchen table eating lunch with Mother. We were having soup. The me in the mirror turned and looked directly at the me standing in front of the King. Mirror me winked, grinned and turned back to her soup and conversation with Mother.

“But that means no one knows I’m here!” I cried.

“Exactly,” said the King. “And that means you’ve got plenty of time to complete my quest before I let you go. Now, to complete the quest you must bring me three things. The first thing is a moonbeam that’s passed through the eye of a fish. The second thing is a sigh from the lips of a maiden who’s just met her true love. The third and final thing is the sound of a violet that’s been pressed between the pages of an ancient tome. There now, that’s not going to be so difficult, is it?”

“Difficult? Those things are impossible! What if I refuse to do your quests? Will you just keep me here forever and let that thing stay out in the real world pretending to be me?”

“If you refuse, or if you fail, I’ll have a lovely new prisoner in my dungeons to play with. Won’t that be lovely? In fact, while you have a think about what you’re going to do why don’t we get you all set up with your very own scratchy blanket and slops bucket, ready for when you move into your cell. Guards!”

Before I could do anything I was grabbed by the arms by two large guards who lifted me right off my feet and took me straight down to the dungeons.

We went past rows and rows of empty cells before I saw the first prisoner. He was a grizzled old man wearing nothing by pants full of holes. His grey hair and beard were so long I could only guess that he’d been there longer than I’d even been alive. I saw more prisoners, but most of them stayed up the back of their cells in the darkness, so I couldn’t get a proper look at them.

The guards dropped me in an empty cell, one of them put a jug of water on the floor. The other one threw a blanket at me and dropped an empty bucket down.

“Here’s your stuff. Food comes once a day. No talking.”

I looked around my cell. There was a pile of straw in one corner which I suppose is what I was meant to use for a bed, along with the thin blanket. It was cold and dark and it smelled bad. All I wanted to do was go home. I should never have gone that far down the garden path. If I ever got home I would never disobey Mother again.

I sat there huddled under my blanket for a long time, feeling very miserable and sorry for myself. I don’t know how long I sat there, but I must have drifted off to sleep eventually because I woke up freezing and hungry.

The cell across from me was occupied by a mass of tangled brown hair. There was a woman inside it, but as she sat hunched against the wall all I could see was her hair and her two twig legs sticking out at the bottom.

I waited and waited for them to bring us some food. I remembered that the guard had said we get food once a day, but it felt like I’d been in there much longer than a day. Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask the woman in the cell across from me.

“Excuse me,” I asked. “Do you know when they bring us food? It’s just that I’ve been here a while now and they haven’t brought us any food. They said we get food once a day, but I’m sure it’s been longer than a day.

She didn’t move from her spot against the wall. “Time moves slow down here. Try not to think about it. The more you want it, the slower time goes.”

“But I’m so hungry, “ I said.

“Get used to it..”

I went back to my pile of straw and tried to sleep some more. It felt like forever that I was in a cycle of sleeping, waking up from the cold and hunger, checking for food, then going back to sleep. Time did feel different down here.

Food eventually arrived. I cried at how little there was. A small slice of bread and a shrivelled up apple. I sat there with the plate in my lap, forcing myself to eat it slowly, crumb by crumb. I even ate the apple core. My water had been refilled, and I tried to not drink it all in one go this time. I took tiny sips between bites.

I sat up the front of my cell with my face pressed against the bars, trying to see who was in the rooms next to me and further down the hall. I heard the sounds of eating, but the woman directly across from me was the only other person I could actually see. As she came forward to get her food her mass of hair fell away from her face. I stared at her, shocked by what I saw.

She noticed me staring and glared back.

“Quit looking at me, kid. Why don’t you go back to your corner and cry about it some more?” she growled and crawled back to her usual spot.

How could she not recognise me? I stood up and brushed the straw off my backside. “Aunt Izzy?” I asked. “Is that you?”

She froze with her bread halfway to her mouth, then turned to look at me again.

“Are you another trick? Another attempt at making me lose my mind? I thought they’d given up on that years ago.” She sighed and said “My niece was just a baby when I last saw her. She wouldn’t even know what I look I like. I’d scare her now.”

“No, Aunt Izzy, I’m not scared of you!” I cried out. “You’re quite dirty and your hair certainly needs a brush, but you’re still my Aunt Izzy. Of course I know what you look like, I’d recognise you anywhere. You’re my favourite Aunt!”

“Even if you are my niece, you’ve never really met me. I’ve been trapped down here since not long after you were born.”

“Then who was it that taught me how to play checkers? Who took care of me that time Mother was sick? Who said that we could go looking for fairy rings?” Suddenly I understood. “It was one of them!”

“Who?” Aunt Izzy asked. She didn’t know that she’d been replaced.

“The King and his people. They put someone in your place to pretend to be you. They did it to me as well, so that Mother wouldn’t get worried and come looking for me. And then the other you tricked me into going to look for fairy rings where they could steal me too! What if the other me tricks Mother into coming here? Oh no, Aunt Izzy, we can’t let that happen, we have to get out of here and warn her!” I was pressed up against the bars of my cell pleading with her.

“It’s no use,” she said. “There’s no way to escape from here, believe me, I’ve spent years trying. I tried to do the King’s ridiculous quest, but it’s impossible. I’ve tried to run away when the guards aren’t looking, but this place is a maze, they just catch you again. I’ve even tried digging my way out, but we’re so far underground that doesn’t work either.”

I couldn’t believe she would give up that easily.

“I’m sorry about your Mother, my sister,” she said. “She’s cleverer than us though, she won’t be tricked liked we did.”

“No.” I stood up. “I won’t let her love something that isn’t her real daughter. I won’t let her love a fake sister. I’ll find a way, Aunt Izzy. I‘ll finish the King’s quest and I’ll get us out of here, don’t worry. I won’t leave you behind. You and me are going home.”

I yelled until the guards came and I told them I wanted to speak to the King, I was ready to start his quest. As they were unlocking the door and walking me out I looked back and grinned at Aunt Izzy. She smiled back and I knew we were going to have such glorious adventures together.