The Fairy Circle

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There was something different about the clearing today. Maisie had been to this part of the forest many times. It was a perfect place to draw the mushrooms and toadstools which popped up in abundance in this clearing, deep in the darkest part of the forest.

Her mother had always warned her about walking this far in alone, but Maisie had never felt afraid. There were no wolves and hadn't been for many years. The deer hurried to get out of the way, all except the big old stag who would watch her, his head held high, as she walked past. In many ways, she felt safer here than she did in the village. The boys she knew from school never came to the forest, preferring to hang around the fish and chip shop, or play soccer up and down the street. They often whistled at her or tried to chat her up. She wasn't interested – in them or any other boys. She was passionate about her art. It was all that mattered to her.

She usually sat at the edge of the clearing and drew all the mushrooms and toadstools that grew around where she sat. Later she would draw fairies or sprites, either sitting or standing on top of or underneath selected mushrooms and toadstools. However, today there were no fungal growths of any kind near the edge of the clearing. Everything seemed to have gravitated toward the centre. The oddest thing was that the mushrooms and toadstools were growing in concentric circles with only ones of the same colour and pattern in each circle. There seemed to be something distinctly not a mushroom placed in the centre of the circles. She couldn't see it clearly as it was so small, but it seemed to be a tiny shrine. She desperately wanted to draw it, but the only way to get closer was to destroy the mushroom ring. Somehow she knew that would be a dangerous idea.

Maisie walked around the circle, examining the tiny shrine from every possible angle. She could see that it was made of some silvery substance, a fine filigree carved or woven into a dome. The base was surrounded by the tiniest blossoms of pink, blue, yellow and white. On the top of the dome was a garland of green, leaves of different shape and shades. In the middle of the domed area was a bright shimmering pearl … or was it ball of light? She so wished she could get closer and investigate.

A sudden feeling of vertigo overtook her and she thought for a moment she was going to faint. She took a deep breath to steady herself, but the world still seemed to be going round and round. It had taken a moment before she realised that it wasn't the world going round but the mushrooms and toadstools. The circles were moving either clockwise or anti-clockwise. Each of the larger outer circles moved in the opposite direction to the one next to it, but the middle circles were moving in groups of two, that is, two circles moved in one direction then the next two in the other direction and so on until the last five circles around the shrine. These were behaving most oddly – it seemed as if each of the mushrooms and toadstools were jumping upwards, one after the other, so that the circles closest to the centre flowed in a wave around the shine.

Maisie thought she was going mad, especially when she saw the procession of tiny white horses pulling a minute but elaborate carriage. Inside was the most marvellous creature – a fairy of exquisite beauty. Her hair glimmered like starlight so that it was difficult to tell its colour, but to Maisie it seemed to be a deep midnight blue. Her face was timeless and mysterious, wise yet innocent. Maisie staggered backwards, felt the roughness of bark against her back as she sank to the ground. Queen Mab smiled and Maisie heard a cool and soft voice tinkling in her ear.

"Welcome to my sacred portal."

Inspired by a prompt or two from Cynthia Morris in her quarterly Free Write Fling.