Faerie Ring

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Faerie Ring

Mirabelle was unperturbed. Despite the alarm in her huge friend's voice, she knew the giant was prone to fits of exaggeration.

"Calm down, Pip. How many were there?"

"Thousands!"

"Really?"

"Well, hundreds." Pip's face wasn't quite so bright red anymore.

"Really?"

"Uh, I'm not exactly sure."

"What did they look like?"

Pip's excitement returned with a vengeance. "They're great hideous black things with huge deadly horns and enormous leathery wings. They're scorching everything in sight with putrid balls of fiery saliva!"

"Calm down, Pip. Are they bigger than you?"

"Ten times bigger!"

"Really?"

"Um, at least twice as big as me."

"Really?"

"I guess I didn't really have time to see how big they were."

Mirabelle decided she'd better see for herself. The fairy floated to the crest of the hill on her gossamer wings. She looked down into a green, pastoral valley inhabited by a lone cow. The cow, who was busily chewing her cud, paused long enough to glance indifferently up at Mirabelle, then looked away and resumed chewing.

The fairy scanned the valley. The grass was still nice and green, but one copse of trees off to the left had leaves that were orange, gold, and red. The sight filled her heart with sadness, but also gave her hope. That was, after all, what they were looking for.

"Come on Pip," she called back down behind her. The giant reluctantly joined her on the hilltop.

"I told you it had horns," he said somewhat lamely, "and it IS black." Mirabelle wondered why she had agreed to let Pip come along. Despite his size and incredible strength, he was really a big wuss. She glanced at him and realized it was his eyes, those enormous puppy dog eyes, that he could use to melt her heart whenever he wanted something bad enough. Still, this was important, and she couldn't afford to let his wild imagination give them any more problems than they already had.

"Let's go," said Mirabelle. "Maybe she knows where the Ring is."

The mismatched pair strolled casually toward the cow, trying to appear as though they belonged here in the human lands. They didn't want to scare off their first contact since crossing over. Time was running out, and finding someone else might take too long.

They stopped about twenty feet from the cow and Mirabelle called out, "Good day, my friend."

"Moo."

"What's wrong with her?" asked Pip in a hushed voice. "Can't she talk?"

"Just our luck," muttered Mirabelle, "The leaves are already starting to fall and all we can find is a cow who can't even--wait a minute! This isn't Faerie, of course cows here can't talk!" She fluttered over to the cow and used her star-tipped wand to sprinkle a liberal dose of fairy dust over her body.

"Hey, what are you doing?" said the cow. "Hey! I can talk! This is way cool. Who are you? And what can I do to return the favour?"

"I'm Mirabelle, a fairy, and my giant friend here is Pip."

Pip extended his hand in greeting, then withdrew it self-consciously when he realized the cow couldn't shake hands with him.

"We need to find a Faerie Ring," Mirabelle continued. "Do you know where we can find one?"

The cow looked at Mirabelle's hands and said, "I've never seen a fairy around here before, let alone a ring that would fit one."

"No, no, not a fairy ring, a Faerie Ring."

"Huh?"

"I'm a fairy. You know, small body, fancy wings, magic wand. I live in Faerie, the land of magic, along with elves, unicorns, giants, and a few hundred other magical races. You'd like it there. A lot of the cows are great athletes. Anyway, a Faerie Ring is like a magic portal, and we need to find one."

"You mean like a doorway to get back to Faerie?"

"No, I don't mean a portal that is magical, I can use my wand to make one of those. I mean a portal for magic to pass through. A Faerie Ring is a conduit for magic to enter this realm from Faerie."

"Sorry," said the cow, "I've never seen anything magic before you came along."

"Sure you have," Pip spoke up. "How do you think the colours got on all those leaves over there?" He pointed a huge finger at the small cluster of trees bearing autumn colours.

"I never really thought about it," said the cow.

"Well, that's Faerie magic," said Mirabelle. "It came from a Faerie Ring, and that's our problem."

"But that happens every year," said the cow.

"Yes," said Mirabelle, "but not in June."

"Now that you mention it, it is rather odd," said the cow. "So what does a Faerie Ring look like?"

"It's usually marked by the presence of unusually large Drellaniums."

"What?"

Mirabelle turned to Pip. "Do you know what they call Drellaniums here?"

"Mushrooms," he replied.

"Oh! Mushroom rings," said the cow. "Why didn't you say so. Just the other day Snowball was telling me about a ring of giant mushrooms he found somewhere around here."

"Who's Snowball?" Mirabelle asked.

"My pet dog." She pursed her lips and whistled loudly.

"You have a pet dog?" said Pip.

"You can whistle?" said Mirabelle.

A moment later a large black dog came bounding over a hilltop, wagging its tail in a friendly manner. It gave a couple of short, happy barks, bounded up to Pip, and started sniffing the giant's ankle. He was curious about the newcomers, but showed no sign of hostility whatsoever.

Pip reached down to scratch the dog's head with his large fingers. "Who ever heard of calling a black dog Snowball?"

The cow looked up at him sardonically. "Who ever heard of calling a giant Pip?"

"What's wrong with Pip?"

"Never mind." The cow turned her attention to the dog. "Snowball, remember the mushrooms you told me about? These people need to find them. It's a fairy ring."

"No," corrected Mirabelle, "I just explained that. It's a Faerie Ring."

"That's what I said."

"No, you said fairy. It's spelled differently."

"How can you tell how it's spelled if I'm talking out loud?"

"It's a gift."

The cow didn't seem impressed, but turned back to Snowball. "Do you remember where the giant mushrooms were?"

"Woof."

Mirabelle was about to take out her wand again, but the cow indicated that it wasn't necessary. "He says they're in a clearing in Briarwood Forest, just past the fallen oak near Sunny Creek."

"You got all that from--never mind." Mirabelle thought this land was much stranger than Faerie. "Can you show us the way?"

"Sure. Follow me." The cow turned and, with Snowball leading the way, headed off in the direction from which the dog had originally come.

As they walked, Pip addressed the cow. "Pardon me, but do you have a name?"

Mirabelle shot him a look as though to say, "Don't be so rude," but the cow didn't seem to mind.

"Nope," she said simply.

"Um, why not?" the giant asked, avoiding the fairy's glare.

"Don't need one," the cow replied.

They walked in silence for a few minutes before the cow spoke up again. "If you don't mind my asking, why do you need to find the fairy, er, Faerie Ring? I gather it has something to do with fall coming early this year."

"Early is an understatement," said Mirabelle

Pip chimed in, "Mirabelle ruined the seasons."

At this, Mirabelle blushed a shade of red that would have been impossible for a human. Aloud she said, "Pip, you're exaggerating again!" but inside she knew it was very close to the truth.

Pip failed in his attempt to suppress a chuckle, and avoided Mirabelle's glare by moving forward to romp ahead with Snowball.

The fairy then attempted to clarify by saying, "It's not actually the season that has come early, just the colours."

"How did that happen?" asked the cow.

Mirabelle decided it was only fair to share the story with the cow. After all, she was being very helpful, and thanks to that help it might just be possible to get out of this whole mess before any real damage was done.

"It actually is my fault," she began. "You see, while Faerie is full of magic and colour, this realm is rather bland by comparison. No offense intended."

"None taken."

"So we have these conduits, Faerie Rings, to funnel magic here when extra colour is needed. There are other times when this is done, but two of the most remarkable are rainbows and the turning of leaves in autumn. Do you remember that big rain a week or so ago?"

"Yes," the cow answered.

"Well, I was supposed to turn on a rainbow after that. I made a little mistake and sent the wrong batch of colour through the portal."

"So what? If it's just the colour and not the real season, what's the problem? We'll just have a colourful summer."

"It's not that simple. The leaves need to be green during the summer for photosynthesis to work."

"Photo what?"

"For them to do their job."

The cow had never thought leaves had a job. In fact, she never really understood why trees needed them at all. But this fairy seemed to know a lot more about it, and apparently it was important for the leaves to be green. Helping her find some mushrooms was nothing in comparison to the gift of speech. She remained quiet while Mirabelle continued.

"Most of the trees affected will die because they won't be able to process the sun's energy all summer long. Right now the damage is relatively contained, but the fall colours will keep spreading until it really is autumn and the leaves fall off. By then huge tracts of forest will have been destroyed."

"What can you do about it?"

"Luckily the Faerie magic is only coming through one portal. If I can find it, I should be able to seal it from this side. It won't save the trees already affected, but it will prevent any more colour from coming through.

As Mirabelle's explanation drew to a close, they could see Pip and Snowball reach the edge of a forest ahead. It looked to cover no more than a few acres, and most of the trees bore the telltale colours of autumn. It wrenched Mirabelle's heart to think that most of these trees would be dead a year from now. That thought in itself strengthened her will to carry on, to ensure the damage was not allowed to spread any further than it already had.

A small brook flowed from the forest near where the dog and the giant had stopped to wait for them to catch up.

The cow said, "That's Sunny Creek. The oak Snowball mentioned is no more than twenty yards into the forest, and he said your Faerie Ring is near that."

When Mirabelle and the cow caught up to the others, the four of them entered the forest, following the stream. They soon came to the fallen tree, and sure enough, there was the circle of Drellaniums. Mirabelle's sigh of relief was echoed by Pip, who almost blew the cow over.

The fairy quickly got down to business.

"Okay. To shut this thing down, I'll need direct access to the portal. It shouldn't be more than a foot below the surface. Pip, do you mind digging away some of this dirt?"

The giant knelt down beside the mushroom ring and began scooping piles of dirt away with his enormous hands. Snowball yipped gleefully and, taking a position across from his new friend, helped dig the dirt away. In a few minutes the hole was several inches deep. A faint glow could be seen through the dirt at the bottom. As they continued to dig, it grew somewhat brighter, though it remained soft and pleasant. The hue shifted from red to orange to yellow and on through the spectrum, repeating the cycle over and over again. The effect was rather beautiful, but Mirabelle wasn't happy to see it.

"Stop digging," she said. "It's worse than I thought. The magic flux through this Ring is really heavy. It's going to take more than a sprinkle of fairy dust to close it."

"Can you do it?" asked the cow.

"Yes, but it will take a few minutes. The dirt dampens the flow, regulating the magic transfer rate. Without that, it'll come through a lot faster."

"Then why did we dig the dirt away?"

"Because it also blocks me from using magic to turn it off. It has to do with the rocks and minerals. What I need is something totally organic to cover the portal while I shut it off."

The cow gave her a strange look, then said, "Um, I could, ah, that is..."

Mirabelle caught on immediately and wrinkled her nose. "Thanks, but no, that wouldn't be big enough." She stood there pensively for a moment, then her gazed focussed on Pip.

Within moments the giant had cleared away the last of the dirt and was sitting on the smooth, glass-like portal itself. Mirabelle fluttered around him, performing a series of intricate movements that reminded Snowball and the cow of butterflies dancing amongst a field of flowers. Every now and then she waved her little wand and a shower of fairy dust cascaded over Pip and the portal. At one point she stopped, a concerned look on her face.

"There's no need to hold your breath, Pip." The giant's face was turning blue.

"I'm not," he replied, wondering why she would say such a thing.

"Oh, okay. Never mind." She continued her dance. Pip's face went through a series of vibrant colours, from azure to scarlet to emerald.

After a few more minutes, Mirabelle slowed and stopped. Pip's face was a soft magenta, but had ceased changing. At the fairy's signal, he stood. The four of them looked down at the flat, dull portal. No flicker of colour was left on its surface.

"Is it dead?" asked the cow.

"Oh no," said Mirabelle. "It wasn't actually alive, so it can't die. It's not even broken. This Ring is still fully functional, it's just turned off. It'll work again when it's needed." She turned to the giant. "Pip, can you cover it up again?"

The giant bent to scoop the dirt back on top of the portal, eagerly assisted by Snowball. When that was done the fairy and giant said goodbye to their new friends. Mirabelle used her wand to draw a doorway in the air, and, with Pip stooping a little, the pair walked back into Faerie.

"Will my face ever go back to normal?" Pip asked.

"Maybe eventually," Mirabelle replied, smiling up at her huge friend, "but I kind of like it that colour."